Infection and inflammation influence the outcome of patient with asymptomatic carotid lesions

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: It is still in debate whether the evaluation of markers of infection and inflammation may be of importance for cerebrovascular and cardiovascular prevention, and we aimed to investigate this field in a prospective 5-year clinical follow-up study in patients with early stages of atherosclerosis. METHODS: We studied 668 subjects divided in 3 groups according to the results of carotid ultrasound examination: (1) normal subjects, if intima-media thickness (IMT) was 1.5 mm. Traditional cardiovascular risk factors were investigated, and laboratory analysis included measurement of plasma lipids, fibrinogen, C-reactive protein, IgG antibodies for helicobacter pylori (HP), cy…

Relationship between endothelial dysfunction, intima media thickness, and other cardiovascular risk factors in asymptomatic subjects

Effects of drug therapy on cardiac arrhythmias and ischemia in hypertensives with LVH.

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in hypertensive subjects is associated with an increased prevalence of ventricular arrhythmias. To evaluate the effect of antihypertensive treatment on cardiac arrhythmias (CA) and transient episodes of myocardial ischemia (TEMI), we studied 46 hypertensive patients with LVH, divided into four groups randomly treated with enalapril, hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), atenolol, or verapamil (SR-V) for 6 months. Office blood pressure and office heart rate values were recorded, in basal conditions, after 1 and 6 months of treatment, and all patients underwent echocardiography, electrocardiographic Holter monitoring, and stress testing. All drugs significantly lowere…

Predective role of asymptomatic carotid lesions for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular, fatal and non fatal, events in a 5-years follow-up study

Fibrinogen as predictor of mortality in a 42-months follow-up after acute myocardial infarction