[Chronic Reno-Cardial Continuum in Glomerulonephritis].

Objectives: To elucidate main risk factors contributing to development of cardiovascular pathology at the predialysis stage of chronic glomerulonephritis.

Materials And Methods: We examined 173 patients (90 men, 83 women, age 15-70, mean age 36.8+/-12.

Bosentan reduces pulmonary artery pressure in high altitude residents.

Unlabelled: Endothelin-1 (ET-1) plays a critical role in the regulation of pulmonary vascular tone. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of ET-1 in the pathogenesis of high altitude pulmonary arterial hypertension (HAPH).

Methods: Pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) was measured by echocardiography in permanent residents of the Kyrgyz Republic (3200-4000 m above sea level) both before and 3 h after a single oral dose of ET receptor antagonist, bosentan (125 mg).

Noninvasive and invasive evaluation of pulmonary arterial pressure in highlanders.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate Doppler echocardiography for the detection of pulmonary hypertension in high-altitude inhabitants. In total, 60 (55 male) patients aged 18-71 yrs were recruited from an ECG screening programme applied to 1,430 inhabitants living at an altitude of 2,500-3,600 m in Kyrgyzstan. Of these, 44 met ECG criteria for right ventricular hypertrophy.

Prevalence of cardiac beta-myosin heavy chain gene mutations in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a frequent, autosomal-dominant cardiac disease and manifests predominantly as left ventricular hypertrophy. Mutations in the cardiac beta-myosin heavy chain gene (MYH7) are responsible for the disease in about 30% of cases where mutations were identified. We clinically evaluated a large group of 147 consecutive HCM patients from three cardiology centers in Germany, Poland, and Kyrgyzstan according to the same protocol.