Cardiac peptides during exercise test in ischemic and non-ischemic heart failure patients.

Background: Cardiac peptides are increased at rest in heart failure patients representing a useful diagnostic tool for this condition. Recently it has been demonstrated that cardiac peptides increase also during myocardial ischemia. Cardiac peptides increase during exercise in heart failure patients, but it has not been established yet if the increase is the same in ischemic and nonischemic patients.

The effect of simvastatin associated with ranitidine and alcohol upon serum lipids.

Statins are highly effective in lowering TC and LDL-C but the increasing of HDL-C is modest and the cost of long-term treatment is too high. On the other hand it is known that the association of H2 receptor blockers increases the plasmatic level of statins, and moderate alcohol consumption increases HDL-C. The purpose of the study was to compare the effect of statins alone and in association with either H2 receptor blockers or alcohol upon serum lipids in dyslipidemic patients.

Effect of isometric effort upon mitral regurgitation severity--echo Doppler study.

Isometric effort increases the severity of mitral regurgitation (MR) by augmenting the afterload and the regurgitant fraction. The worsening of MR may be different in various patients and can explain the differences in effort capacity of patients with identical rest mitral regurgitation. We studied 25 patients with MR of various etiologies, submitted to handgrip (maximal voluntary contraction), the severity of MR being evaluated by the determination of regurgitant area (colour Doppler).

The effect of handgrip upon Doppler data in mitral stenosis.

Unlabelled: The usefulness of physical rehabilitation in patients with valvular heart disease is now well established. But, mainly in mitral stenosis, the isometric exercises are under question, because of the risk of sudden rise in capillary pulmonary pressure. In order to clarify this aspect we have studied the effect of isometric exercise upon Doppler data in mitral stenosis.

Comparative value of arm and leg exercise testing.

Arm exercise test (AET) is described as an alternative to the classical leg exercise test (LET). The value of these two types of exercise was studied in a group of 32 patients aged 34 to 65 years. The patients performed LET for several reasons and, after 24 hrs, AET under the same conditions.