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The effect of the pesticide Fundazol (methyl-l-butyl-carbamoil-benzimidazol carbamate) on the development of sclerotic lesions in the heart muscle of experimental animals, caused by atherogenic diet, was studied. Investigations were carried out in a series of 144 albino rats of either sex, treated accordingly with 250 mg/kg and 1000 mg/kg Fundazol or atherogenic diet alone and with a combination of atherogenic factor and either dose of the pesticide. Using biochemical test (dehydrogenase and phosphatase activities, quantity of soluble and insoluble collagen and elastin proteins, content of glucosamineglycans and glucoproteins) and routine morphologic and histochemical methods, the authors studied the metabolic processes and the characteristics of the fibrous structures and basic intercellular substance in the heart muscle. Combined with atherogenic diet, Fundazol potentiated its effect: the developing pathologic process was more severe and progressed more rapidly than in animals exposed to the atherogenic factor alone.

The authors studied the changes in myocardium during a long-term effect of low carbon sulphide concentrations--50 and 10 mg/m3 by enzyme-histochemical, biochemical and classical histological and electron microscopic methods. THe data from the experiment provided evidence of the involvement of myocardium and vessels in destructive-adaptation reactions in case of carbon-sulphide effect, the destructive processes being with preponderance. They are conditioned both by metabolic disorders of energy-forming systems and the disturbed processes of transport and utilization of energy. Furthermore, the action coordination is disturbed as in the separate muscle cells and the totality of the tissue elements, forming the myocardium as well.

Biochemical, histological and electron-microscopic examinations of the heart and the aorta of albino rats exposed to carbon disulphide in concentrations of 10, 50, 100 and 200 mg . m-3 were carried out. Changes in the metabolic and energetic processes in the myocardium and in the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the connective tissue of the aortal vessel wall were observed. The established disorders follow the dose-effect dependence. The authors studied the effect of carbon disulphide in concentrations of 10 and 50 mg . m-3 on the electrophoretic spectrum of serum proteins, the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of fibrous structures in the myocardium and the aorta of albino rats fed on atherogenic diet (cholesterol, cholic acid and vitamin D2). The combination of carbon disulphide with the atherogenic factor leads to intensification of changes in the cardiovascular system and in serum proteins, observed after independent exposure to either of the factors. The combination of atherogenic diet and 10 mg . m-3 carbon disulphide induced symptoms of intoxication, decreased survival of the animals, and the developing sclerotic process was found to be more severe and to progress more rapidly than in animals subject to atherogenic diet alone. The obtained results testify to cardiovascular effect of carbon disulphide. The observed atherogenic effect of carbon disulphide in low concentrations is most probably connected with its direct effect on the myocardium and the vessels.

The authors follow up the effect of "Ratron" a raticide (coumarin derivative) with two regimes of administration--monotonous and intermittent--upon the state of the cardiovascular system of experimental animals. The experiment was carried out on 65 female albino rats, grouped into three groups: group I--20 animals treated 5 times weekly with 1/100 LD50 ratron--five weeks; group II--25 animals, administered 5 times weekly every second week 1/50 LD50, and group III--20 controls. At the end of the sixth month, the state of the metabolic processes and the qualitative and quantitative characteristic of the connective tissue of myocardium and aorta were followed up by biochemical and histological methods. Unidirectional deviations in metabolism and the structure of myocardium and aorta were observed under the effect of both regimes, the changes being better manifested with the intermittent administration of ratron. Data were established not only about the general toxic effect of ratron but about the direct lesions of vessels, multiple hemorrhages, interstitial oedema, regeneration of endothelium, structural changes in the small vessels, changes in the components of the basic intercellular substance of the connective tissue.