Albuminuria and renal function in obese adults evaluated for obstructive sleep apnea.

Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with hypertension, obesity and metabolic syndrome that are risk factors for cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease. Few data are available regarding renal parameters in patients with OSA.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 91 obese adults who had routine polysomnography before bariatric surgery.

Impact of treating the metabolic syndrome on chronic kidney disease.

The metabolic syndrome is defined by the concurrent presence of at least three metabolic disorders that are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Results from prospective and cross-sectional studies also point to an association between the metabolic syndrome and chronic kidney disease. Visceral obesity and insulin resistance are two important features of the metabolic syndrome that might explain renal injury.

Methodological variability in detecting prescribing errors and consequences for the evaluation of interventions.

Purpose: To compare four methods of detecting prescribing errors (PE) in the same patient cohorts before and after an intervention (computerised physician order entry; CPOE) and to determine whether the impact of CPOE is identified consistently by all methods.

Methods: PEs were identified using (1) prospective detection by ward pharmacist; (2) retrospective health record review; (3) retrospective use of a trigger tool and (4) spontaneous reporting over two separate 4-week periods on one surgical ward in a UK teaching hospital.

Results: We reviewed 93 patients pre- and 114 post-CPOE.

Behavioral predictors of weight regain after bariatric surgery.

Background: After bariatric surgery, a lifelong threat of weight regain remains. Behavior influences are believed to play a modulating role in this problem. Accordingly, we sought to identify these predictors in patients with extreme obesity after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB).

Cardiovascular evaluation and management of severely obese patients undergoing surgery: a science advisory from the American Heart Association.

Obesity is associated with comorbidities that may lead to disability and death. During the past 20 years, the number of individuals with a body mass index >30, 40, and 50 kg/m(2), respectively, has doubled, quadrupled, and quintupled in the United States. The risk of developing comorbid conditions rises with increasing body mass index.

Impact of surgical and nonsurgical weight loss on diabetes resolution and cardiovascular risk reduction.

Weight loss favorably modifies most cardiovascular risk factors, in particular the diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. Treating the spectrum of diabetes by promoting disease control or resolution invariably improves cardiovascular outcomes. However, in clinical trials and routine medical practice, long-term weight loss has been difficult to achieve due to wavering patient motivation, inadequate resources, ineffective medical treatments, lack of psychosocial support, recidivism, or combinations thereof.

Advantages of group treatment and structured exercise in promoting short-term weight loss and cardiovascular risk reduction in adults with central obesity.

Background: Previous data suggest that group obesity treatment results in greater weight loss than individual treatment. Whether exercise with calorie restriction results in significantly greater weight loss as compared with calorie restriction alone remains unclear. We evaluated the impact of self-selected group intervention, with and without exercise, on body mass index (BMI) and cardiovascular risk factors.

Lipoproteins, inflammatory biomarkers, and cardiovascular imaging in the assessment of atherosclerotic disease activity.

Atherosclerosis is present in about 50% of asymptomatic adults at middle age and in nearly all elderly individuals. The traditional diagnostic and treatment paradigm has addressed risk detection and reduction of binary events, including myocardial infarction (MI), stroke, and cardiovascular death. About 50% of all acute coronary syndromes occur in previously asymptomatic subjects, 90% of whom have modifiable risk factors; yet our current screening approaches fail to prevent the 1.

Cardiorespiratory fitness and sedentary lifestyle in the morbidly obese.

Background: Sedentary lifestyles and poor physical fitness are major contributors to the current obesity and cardiovascular disease pandemic.

Hypothesis: Daily physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness are correlated in morbidly obese individuals in their free-living environment.

Methods: Ten morbidly obese participants continuously wore an activity sensor that measured caloric expenditure, minute-by-minute physical activity, and steps/day over a 72-h period.

Malaria primes the innate immune response due to interferon-gamma induced enhancement of toll-like receptor expression and function.

Malaria-induced sepsis is associated with an intense proinflammatory cytokinemia for which the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. It has been demonstrated that experimental infection of humans with Plasmodium falciparum primes Toll-like receptor (TLR)-mediated proinflammatory responses. Nevertheless, the relevance of this phenomenon during natural infection and, more importantly, the mechanisms by which malaria mediates TLR hyperresponsiveness are unclear.

Hemorrhagic stroke with intraventricular extension in the setting of acute posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES): case report.

We report the case of an eighteen year-old pregnant female with preeclampsia and florid signs and symptoms of posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) in whom intracerebral hemorrhage was evidenced following delivery. Management included blood pressure control, external ventricular drainage and lumboperitoneal shunt. To our knowledge this is the first report of intracranial hemorrhage occurring concurrently with peripartum acute PRES.

Correlates of depression at baseline among African Americans enrolled in cardiac rehabilitation.

Purpose: To compare baseline psychosocial characteristics of African Americans entering phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation who have depression symptoms at or above threshold (Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale [CES-D] score >or=16) with those who do not (CES-D score <16).

Methods: A nonrandom sample of 112 men and women (n = 78 without depression, n = 34 with depression) was recruited through local phase 2 cardiac rehabilitation programs. Data were obtained by a structured interview and brief physical examination using several reliable and valid instruments.

Effect of comprehensive therapeutic lifestyle changes on prehypertension.

Although national clinical guidelines promulgate therapeutic lifestyle changes (TLC) as a cornerstone in the management of prehypertension, there is a perceived ineffectiveness of TLC in the real world. In this study of 2,478 ethnically diverse (African Americans n = 448, Caucasians n = 1,881) men (n = 666) and women (n = 1,812) with prehypertension and no known atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, or chronic kidney disease, we evaluated the clinical effectiveness of TLC in normalizing blood pressure (BP) without antihypertensive medications. Subjects were evaluated at baseline and after an average of 6 months of participation in a community-based program of TLC.

Exercise physiologist's role in clinical practice.

The use of exercise testing has expanded greatly to help guide decisions about medical management and prognosis in a broad spectrum of patients. Numerous epidemiological studies in people with and without documented coronary artery disease have identified a low level of cardiorespiratory fitness as an independent risk factor for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality and that exercise capacity is inversely associated with healthcare costs. Accordingly, unfit men and women should be counselled to exercise in home-based or group preventative or rehabilitative programmes.

Apnea and macrocephaly-cutis marmorata telangiectatica congenita.

The authors report a case of an infant girl with macrocephaly-cutis marmorata telangiectatica congenita (Macrocephaly-CMTC). This patient presented with developmental delay, mild subcostal retractions, and occasional apneic spells. An MRI demonstrated mild to moderate lateral ventricle hydrocephalus, left hemi-megalencephaly, and left cerebellar tonsillar herniation with full occlusion of the cisterna magna.

Is new science driving practice improvements and better patient outcomes? Applications for cardiac rehabilitation.

Evidence from many clinical trials in recent years suggests that a large "treatment gap" exists between recommended therapies and the care that patients actually receive. This gap has been particularly apparent in the area of primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. In this article, three areas are discussed in which new scientific advances have not been adequately translated to clinical practice.

Infratentorial angioleiomyoma: a new location for a rare neoplastic entity.

Angioleiomyomas are benign neoplasms most often located in the subcutaneous tissue of middle-aged individuals and usually confined to the subcuticular and deep dermal layers of the lower extremities. An intracranial site for this tumor is exceedingly rare, with very few reports documenting locations in the neuraxis. To the authors' knowledge the present case represents the first reported instance of an infratentorial angioleiomyoma.