To Treat or not to Treat? The Fate of Patients with Intermittent Claudication Following Different Therapeutic Options.

Background: Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is recognized as a significant contributor to the public health burden in the cardiovascular field and has a significant rate of morbidity and mortality. In the intermediate stages, exercise therapy is recommended by the guidelines, although supervised programs are scarcely available. This single-center observational study aimed to evaluate the long-term outcomes of patients with PAD and claudication receiving optimal medical care and follow-up or revascularization procedures or structured home-based exercise.

Psychosocial determinants of healthcare use costs in kidney transplant recipients.

Introduction: Psychosocial factors frequently occur in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs), leading to behavioral alterations and reduced therapeutic adherence. However, the burden of psychosocial disorders on costs for KTRs is unknown. The aim of the study is to identify predictors of healthcare costs due to hospital admissions and emergency department access in KTRs.

Impact of Improvement in Walking Speed on Hospitalization and Mortality in Females with Cardiovascular Disease.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the principal cause of death in women. Walking speed (WS) is strongly related with mortality and CVD. The rate of all-cause hospitalization or death was assessed in 290 female outpatients with CVD after participation in a cardiac rehabilitation/secondary prevention program (CR/SP) and associated with the WS maintained during a moderate 1 km treadmill-walk.

Changes in exercise capacity and risk of all-cause mortality in patients with peripheral artery disease: a 10-year retrospective cohort study.

We retrospectively studied the association between changes in exercise capacity at discharge from a home-based exercise program and the risk of all-cause mortality among patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) and claudication. The records of 1076 consecutive PAD patients were assessed between 2003 and 2013. The exercise program was prescribed during a few visits and executed at home at symptom-free walking speed.

Rehabilitative Exercise Reduced the Impact of Peripheral Artery Disease on Vascular Outcomes in Elderly Patients with Claudication: A Three-Year Single Center Retrospective Study.

The study retrospectively evaluated the association between rehabilitative outcomes and risk of peripheral revascularizations in elderly peripheral artery disease (PAD) patients with claudication. Eight-hundred thirty-five patients were enrolled. Ankle-brachial index (ABI) and maximal walking speed (S) were measured at baseline and at discharge from a structured home-based rehabilitation program.

Improved walking speed is associated with lower hospitalisation rates in patients in an exercise-based secondary prevention programme.

Objective: To determine the relationship between walking speed (WS) maintained during a 1 km test and its improvement on hospitalisation in cardiac outpatients who were referred to an exercise-based secondary prevention programme.

Methods: Hospitalisation was assessed in 1791 patients 3 years after enrolment and related to the WS achieved during a 1 km walk at moderate intensity on a treadmill. Hospitalisation was also assessed during the fourth-to-sixth years as function of improvement in WS in 1111 participants who were re-evaluated 3 years after baseline.

Relationship between Troponin Elevation, Cardiovascular History and Adverse Events in Patients with acute exacerbation of COPD.

Evidence suggests that troponin (Tn) elevation during acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) may predict an increase in mortality risk. We performed an observational study of 935 patients admitted to hospital for AECOPD from January 2010 to December 2012. Principal clinical and laboratory data were recorded, especially ischemic heart disease (IHD) history, Tn T values and cardiovascular drug prescription.

Discharge diagnosis and comorbidity profile in hospitalized older patients with dementia.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the principal discharge diagnosis and related comorbidity in hospitalized older patients affected by dementia.

Methods: Data from 51,838 consecutive computerized discharge records of the St. Anna University Hospital (Ferrara, Italy) were analyzed.

Incidence of status epilepticus in southern Europe: a population study in the health district of Ferrara, Italy.

Background: The epidemiologic features of status epilepticus (SE) are still in the course of definition.

Methods: We carried out an intensive survey of multiple sources of case material in the resident population of the health district of Ferrara, Italy, in 2003. Information was collected on age, gender, duration, seizure type and etiology of SE.

[The Day Service: a novel structure for the outpatient].

In our hospitals, diagnostic and therapeutic unbloody technologies allow the development of day care services in substitution for usual hospitalization. The Day Service, as like other daily services, is an organization of the outpatient structure, combining day care and simple services, into a complex clinical situation. A complex outpatient treatment (profile) identifies an "outpatient standard package" in accordance to a specific pathology or diagnostic symptomatology.

Seasonal variation in onset of myocardial infarction--a 7-year single-center study in Italy.

Like many other serious acute cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events, acute myocardial infarction (AMI) shows seasonal variation, being most frequent in the winter. We sought to investigate whether age, gender, and hypertension influence this pattern. We studied 4014 (2259 male and 1755 female) consecutive patients with AMI presenting to St.