The first clinical description of Balkan endemic nephropathy (1956) and its validity 35 years later.

A high prevalence of renal disease in Vratza, a district in north-west Bulgaria, was studied in 1950-54 by Tanchev at the district hospital. A particular unknown renal condition was described at local meetings in 1953 and was referred to as 'endemic Vratza nephritis' in 1955. The first clinical description of this new nosological entity, published by Tanchev and colleagues in 1956, was based on 664 patients hospitalized for renal disease.

Methods of exercise testing and training prescription for cardiovascular diseases.

Physical exercise testing and training in health and in heart disease may differ in concepts, targets and interpretation. Untrained males (n = 1962) of different age (18-65 years)--638 apparently healthy, 121 with arterial hypertension stage I-II, 1140 after confirmed acute myocardial infarction, and 63 after mitral surgery--were submitted to near-maximal bicycle spiro-ergometry (sitting, 60 rpm). Correlations between oxygen uptake (VO2), external work (W), heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (BP), double product (HR x BD = DP, as an indirect index of myocardial oxygen uptake), and other derived indices, varied substantially.