Combination of site of infarct, unrecognized glucose intolerance, and reinfarction after acute myocardial infarction in normotensive subjects is determinant of the development of subsequent systemic hypertension: a pilot study.

Background: The natural history of hypertension in healthy normotensive subjects has been described in the Framingham population. We aim to study the rate of progression to hypertension in normotensive subjects after acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Methods: One hundred seventy-three consecutive normotensive subjects admitted to the Coronary Care Unit with AMI were studied retrospectively with prospective follow-up 4 years after AMI.

Prevalence of unrecognized abnormal glucose tolerance in patients attending a hospital hypertension clinic.

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) are not uncommonly associated with hypertension. Fasting blood glucose level is still recognized as an indicator of DM.

Methods: We studied 99 consecutive patients who were not known to be diabetic patients and with no cardiac history, who were attending our Hypertension Clinic for investigation and management of uncontrolled blood pressure (BP).

Age-associated changes in left ventricular diastolic function are related to increasing left ventricular mass.

Isometric exercise (IME) produces significant hemodynamic changes in the cardiovascular system. We have used IME to study the effect of age on diastolic left ventricular (LV) function in 100 normal volunteers. The E/A ratio (peak velocity of early/atrial filling phases), deceleration time (DT), and isovolumic relaxation time (IVRT) of the transmitral flow were assessed during echocardiography with pulsed-Doppler ultrasound at rest and at peak IME using handgrip.