A novel signal-averaged electrocardiogram and an ambulatory-based signal-averaged electrocardiogram show strong correlations with conventional signal-averaged electrocardiogram in healthy subjects: A validation study.

Background: A novel signal-averaged electrocardiogram (SAECG) device and a novel ambulatory SAECG device are clinically available, but reference values have not been established. This study aimed to validate the novel SAECG and the novel ambulatory-based SAECG devices by comparison with the conventional SAECG device.

Methods And Results: High-resolution SAECGs were recorded consecutively in 83 healthy volunteers using the 3 devices.

Effect of age at menopause on blood pressure in postmenopausal women.

Background: A major mechanism of hypertension in many postmenopausal women is deficiency of female gonadal steroids. A long postmenopausal period may thus represent one factor that influences the prevalence of hypertension because of long periods of estrogen loss.

Methods: When we conducted a medical survey in northwestern China, we also asked 150 postmenopausal female subjects to provide age at menopause in a questionnaire.

Beneficial effect of beraprost sodium plus telmisartan in the prevention of arterial stiffness development in elderly patients with hypertension and cerebral infarction.

Beraprost sodium (BPS, an analogue of prostacyclin) and telmisartan (TS, an angiotensin receptor blocker) have been reported to have a preventive effect on arterial stiffness in patients with cardiovascular diseases. The purpose of this study was to estimate the effects of a combined therapy using BPS and TS on arterial pulse wave velocity (PWV) values in elderly patients with hypertension and cerebral infarction. Over a 3-month period, 80 subjects with hypertension and histories of cerebral infarction received BPS only (120 microg/day p.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme gene and longevity in the Xin Jiang Uighur autonomous region of China: an association study.

Background: Longevity can be regarded as a multifactorial trait that results from an interaction between environmental factors and sets of epistatic alleles that have pleiotropic age-dependent effects. The Hotan district in the Xin Jiang Uighur Autonomous region of China is relatively isolated and is well known for an ethnic group that displays marked longevity.

Methods: We performed a correlation study between the insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene and longevity by comparing distributions of the polymorphism between three different ethnic groups in this region.