NT-proBNP: a marker of preclinical cardiac damage in arterial hypertension.

Background: The cardiac left ventricle responds to pressure overloads with mechanisms culminating in irreversible structural/functional cardiac alterations (left ventricular hypertrophy and/or diastolic dysfunction), inducing myocardial cells to secrete natriuretic peptides (NT-proBNP) antagonists of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of serum NT-proBNP levels in order to detect structural/functional cardiac diseases assessed by echocardiography.

Methods: A total of 126 consecutive newly diagnosed, never before treated, hypertensive patients (30-67 years) were enrolled, and clinical, echocardiography parameters and biochemical data were collected.

Diastolic function: the influence of pneumoperitoneum and Trendelenburg positioning during laparoscopic hysterectomy.

Background And Objective: Several reports concerning the haemodynamic changes during gynaecologic laparoscopy have been published so far, and the effects of head-down tilt and pneumoperitoneum have not been clearly separated. However, its main effect seems to be an increase in systemic vascular resistance. We investigated how the augmented afterload can affect diastolic function.