Low-dose aspirin prevents age-related endothelial dysfunction in a mouse model of physiological aging.

The age-related impairment of endothelium-dependent vasodilatation contributes to increased cardiovascular risk in the elderly. For primary and secondary prevention, aspirin can reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events in this patient population. The present work evaluated the effect of low-dose aspirin on age-related endothelial dysfunction in C57B/J6 aging mice and investigated its protective antioxidative effect.

Brain ischemic preconditioning is abolished by antioxidant drugs but does not up-regulate superoxide dismutase and glutathion peroxidase.

The present work examined the hypothesis that brain ischemic tolerance induced by ischemic preconditioning (IPC) is triggered by an initial oxidative stress and is associated with an increase in antioxidant enzyme activities as one end-effector of the neuroprotection. Wistar rats were preconditioned by a single 3-min occlusion of the middle cerebral artery. After a various duration of reperfusion (30 min, 24, 72 or 168 h), rats were subjected to a 60-min focal ischemia and sacrificed 24 h later.

[Lung diseases in the elderly. Assessment of guidelines for the probabilistic prescription of antibiotics in a department of geriatric care].

Objective: We developed a prescribing guideline containing recommendations for the initial empirical antibiotic therapy in community or nosocomial pneumonia. The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of this measure.

Method: The prescribing guideline was implemented in May 1999.

Antiphospholipid antibodies and the risk of thromboembolic events in valvular heart disease.

Objective: To investigate the role of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) in subsequent thromboembolic events and mortality in a prospective follow-up of 89 patients with severe, nonspecific valvular heart disease.

Patients And Methods: Between November 1, 1993, and March 31, 1994, 89 patients with valvular heart disease were assessed for the presence of anticardiolipin antibodies and lupus anticoagulant. The primary end point was thromboembolic events, and the secondary end points were cardiovascular mortality and overall mortality.

Intraindividual reproducibility of postprandial hypotension.

Background: Postprandial hypotension (PPH) is increasingly recognized as a common cause of falls and syncopes in the elderly. The diagnosis of PPH is based on the measurement of meal-induced blood pressure (BP) changes. Although the problem of intraindividual reproducibility of PPH is of clinical importance, it has not been extensively studied.