Publications by authors named "Angela Scozzafava"
Article Synopsis
- The Italian Society of Echography and Cardiovascular Imaging (SIECVI) conducted a national survey to investigate stress echocardiography (SE) practices across Italy, collecting data from 228 laboratories in November 2022.
- The survey revealed that out of 179 centers performing SE, most were located in northern Italy, and the study categorized them into low, moderate, and high volume of activity based on the number of SE examinations.
- Key findings indicated differences in the use of stressors, with a tendency for high-volume centers to employ multiple stress techniques and incorporate advanced evaluations like coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR) more frequently than low and moderate volume centers.
Background: The Italian Society of Echocardiography and Cardiovascular Imaging (SIECVI) conducted a national survey to understand better how different echocardiographic modalities are used and accessed in Italy.
Methods: We analyzed echocardiography laboratory activities over a month (November 2022). Data were retrieved via an electronic survey based on a structured questionnaire, uploaded on the SIECVI website.
Objectives: Growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) interfere with cardiac mass (left ventricular mass; LVM) development. We investigated the role of the GH/IGF-1 axis on LVM and ventricular geometry in a group of 230 never-treated hypertensive patients.
Methods: Partition values for left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) were 125 g/m2 for both women and men.
Aims: To investigate the additive prognostic impact of both forearm endothelial dysfunction and left ventricular mass (LVM) for future cardiovascular events.
Methods And Results: We enrolled 324 Caucasian, never treated, hypertensive outpatients. Endothelial function, by intra-arterial infusion of acetylcholine (ACh), and echocardiographic LVM were investigated.
Some cardiovascular risk factors, such as hypertension and insulin resistance, are associated with endothelial dysfunction. Insulin regulates both in vitro and in vivo expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) via a pathway involving insulin receptor substrate-1 (IRS-1) and phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase. Recently, we found that human endothelial cells obtained from carriers of the Arg(972) IRS-1 polymorphism exhibited reduced eNOS expression in response to chronic exposure to insulin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLeft ventricular (LV) mass that develops as cardiac adaptive remodeling represents a powerful independent predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the general population and in several clinical conditions, including essential hypertension. However, many studies have shown that blood pressure explains only 10% to 25% of the variation in LV mass, supporting the hypothesis that other factors, such as genetics or metabolics (insulin-resistance/hyperinsulinemia), are involved in the cardiac growth in human hypertension. Essential hypertension is also characterized by insulin-resistance/hyperinsulinemia, which may directly induce LV hypertrophy through the stimulation of insulin-like growth factor-1 receptors, abundantly expressed in myocardium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To test whether weight loss may improve endothelial dysfunction in human obesity, we recruited 28 healthy obese subjects, aged 30-46 years, with BMI 30-43 kg/m(2).
Research Design And Methods: Endothelium-dependent and -independent vasodilation were investigated by intra-arterial infusion of increasing doses of acetylcholine (ACh; 7.5, 15, and 30 microg x ml(-1) x min(-1)) and sodium nitroprusside (0.