Influence of atmospheric states in semi-arid areas on hospital admission in cardio-surgical department.

The influence of the changes in atmospheric state, typical for areas close to big deserts, on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was analyzed. Under test was the group of 3256 patients (77 % males, 23 % females), hospitalized in the Cardio-Surgical Department of Soroka Medical Center at Ben-Gurion University (BGU, Israel) during 2000-2008. To explore the relationship between atmospheric parameters and AMI, multivariate regression analysis has been performed.

Behind the scenes of adherence in a minority population.

Background: The rate of adherence to treatment for diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension (HTN) and lipid metabolic disorder (LMD) is significantly lower in the Bedouin population compared with the lewish population in southern Israel.

Objectives: To investigate the reasons for non-adherence associated with cardiovascular risk factors among Bedouins.

Methods: We identified Bedouin patients with HTN, DM or LMD from medical records and randomly selected 443 high adherent and 403 low adherent patients.

Possible effects of changes in the meteorological state over semi-arid areas on the general well-being of weather-sensitive patients.

Background: The influence of the changes in atmospheric states, typical for areas close to big deserts, on general well-being of hypertensive persons was analyzed.

Methods: Under test was the group of 20 hypertensive weather-sensitive patients; their blood pressure, pulse rate and appearance of 4 symptoms of discomfort sensations: arthritic pain, unjustified anxiety, severe headache and inexplicable tiredness- were registered. Symptoms are classified in ICD-9 code (780-790) and scored on a 4-point scale.