Echocardiographic reference ranges for normal left ventricular 2D strain: results from the EACVI NORRE study.

Aims: To obtain the normal ranges for 2D echocardiographic (2DE) measurements of left ventricular (LV) strain from a large group of healthy volunteers accounting for age and gender.

Methods And Results: A total of 549 (mean age: 45.6 ± 13.

3D echocardiographic reference ranges for normal left ventricular volumes and strain: results from the EACVI NORRE study.

Aim: To obtain the normal ranges for 3D echocardiography (3DE) measurement of left ventricular (LV) volumes, function, and strain from a large group of healthy volunteers.

Methods And Results: A total of 440 (mean age: 45 ± 13 years) out of the 734 healthy subjects enrolled at 22 collaborating institutions of the Normal Reference Ranges for Echocardiography (NORRE) study had good-quality 3DE data sets that have been analysed with a vendor-independent software package allowing homogeneous measurements regardless of the echocardiographic machine used to acquire the data sets. Upper limits of LV end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes were larger in men (97 and 42 mL/m2) than in women (82 and 35 mL/m2; P < 0.

Normal Reference Ranges for Echocardiography: rationale, study design, and methodology (NORRE Study).

Background: Availability of normative reference values for cardiac chamber dimensions, volumes, mass, and function is a prerequisite for the accurate application of echocardiography for both clinical and research purposes. However, due to the lack of consistency in current echocardiographic 'reference values', their use for clinical decision-making remains questionable.

Aims: The aim of the 'Normal Reference Ranges for Echocardiography Study (NORRE Study)' is to obtain a set of 'normal values' for cardiac chamber geometry and function in a large cohort of healthy Caucasian individuals aged over a wide range of ages (25-75 years) using both conventional and advanced echocardiographic techniques.

[Metabolic programming: theoretical concepts and experimental evidence].

It is known that the poor nutrition during a fetal development may contribute to an increased risk of chronic diseases in adulthood. In a modern literature, this phenomenon is called «the nutritional programming of age-related pathologies». It is assumed that the qualitative or quantitative deficiency of certain nutritional components during an early development may lead to the adaptations that contribute to improved survival during the prenatal and early postnatal periods of an ontogenesis.

[The effect of sermion on the main hemodynamic indices in patients with the initial manifestations of cerebral atherosclerosis].

It has been found that the drug sermion (nicergoline)--a synthetic ergot alkaloid with alpha-adrenoblocking action--produces a pronounced vasoactive (spasmolytic) effect in the elderly patients suffering of initial atherosclerotic encephalopathy. A course of sermion treatment improves, via its effect on the brain and lower extremity vessels, the flow in most involved vascular regions. High concentrations of the drug after intravenous administration of 4 mg of sermion (nicergoline) result in a rise of the sympathetic vascular tone, high adrenoblocking action.