Blood pressure control and weight loss in overweight or obese patients with previously treated or untreated mild to moderate hypertension given valsartan: An open-label study comparing pretreatment and posttreatment values.

Background: Hypertension is associated with obesity. Recent studies have indicated that therapy with an angiotensin II antagonist, in addition to having an antihypertensive effect, may cause a reduction in body weight.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and tolerability of valsartan in the treatment of overweight or obese patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension.

Plasma catecholamines in pre- and in postmenopausal women with mild to moderate essential hypertension.

The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is thought to play an important role in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension and many studies have established a relationship between plasma levels of norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (E) and sympathetic nervous activity (SNA). Furthermore, it has been suggested that climacteric women are more exposed to psychosocial stress which can produce a transient rise in blood pressure (BP) and, with time, determine a hypertensive state. Plasma NE and E levels were measured at rest and after physiological stimulation (head-up tilt test) in 20 hypertensive (BP: 146 +/- 13/101 +/- 4 mm Hg) and in 20 normotensive women (BP: 132 +/- 7/85 +/- 4 mm Hg).

Left atrial size in paroxysmal atrial fibrillation: echocardiographic evaluation and follow-up.

Echocardiographic measurement of left atrial size was performed in 24 patients (13 males, 11 females, median age 56 years) with idiopathic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (IPAF). A second measurement was done, after a mean period of 20 months. Our study showed that: (1) the patients with IPAF had normal-sized atria, the dimensions of which remained unmodified over a 20-month period; and (2) no correlation was found between the frequency of recurrent arrhythmic episodes and left atrial size.

Body mass index distribution in climacteric women.

Body Mass Index (BMI) was calculated in 2481 climacteric women selected from among the outpatients attending the Menopause Clinic at Bologna University in absence of hormonal replacement therapy and diseases that could cause weight gain. Analysis of variance of the W/H2 (weight/height squared) distribution in different age and climacteric situations demonstrates that the pre-menopause is a weight-gain inducing state and that ageing seems to cause a progressive increase in W/H2.

[Cardiological findings in acromegaly].

Acromegaly involves cardiovascular complications mostly due to the presence of hypertension, diabetes and atherosclerosis. However the appearance of cardiac decompensation and arrhythmias in the absence of predisposing factors tends to support the hypothesis of a specific myocardiopathy caused by excess GH. In order to assess the existence and course of subclinical cardiac alterations, 8 acromegaly patients were examined: 4 males and 4 females aged 31-56 with GH levels of 24-70 ng/ml (M + CD X 47 +/- 16) and no cardiovascular symptoms.