General Practice
Prevalence of arm movements in patients with coronary heart disease: case-control study
BMJ 1997; 314 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.314.7074.122 (Published 11 January 1997) Cite this as: BMJ 1997;314:122
- Alan N Rennie, part time medical adviser to Benefits Agencya
- a 20 Waterside Avenue, Newton Mearns, Glasgow G77 6JT
- Accepted 30 August 1996
Introduction
I had previously noticed that patients with coronary heart disease tended to gesticulate, or sit with their arms up and hands clasped behind their heads, more than patients who did not have ischaemic heart disease.1 I therefore undertook a pilot study using a goniometer2 to measure movements at the elbow joint during a 10 minute interview in a group of patients with proved coronary heart disease and a group of controls. A significant difference, using an analysis of variance, was shown between the patients with coronary heart disease and the controls (P=0.01). As the pilot study had only 10 patients …