Publications by authors named "Juan J de la Cruz"

Article Synopsis
  • A study examined the impact of a Mediterranean-lifestyle index (MEDLIFE) on blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) among 2,184 community-dwelling older adults, emphasizing the combined effects of diet and physical activity.
  • Higher MEDLIFE scores, which reflect better adherence to a Mediterranean lifestyle, were linked to lower nighttime systolic BP and HR, suggesting lifestyle factors play a protective role in cardiovascular health.
  • The findings indicate that incorporating Mediterranean dietary habits and physical activity may provide significant BP-related benefits for older adults, prompting future investigation in diverse populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background & aims: the last large multicenter study on disease-related malnutrition (DRM) in Spain (the PREDyCES study) showed a 23.7 % prevalence of malnutrition, according to the Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS-2002) tool. The main objective of the SeDREno study was to assess the prevalence of hospital malnutrition upon admission, according to GLIM criteria, ten years later.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) treated for hypertension can suffer from hypotension due to antihypertensive medications, making its identification crucial.
  • A study involving 2,892 CHD-treated hypertensive patients found that a significant portion experienced various forms of hypotension, with low diastolic blood pressure being a common cause.
  • Many cases of hypotension detected through ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) were missed when only relying on office blood pressure readings, highlighting the need for routine ABPM in these patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Air in urban areas is usually contaminated with particle matter. High concentrations lead to a rise in the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Some studies have reported that ultrafine particles (UFP) play a greater role in cardiovascular diseases than other particle matter, particularly regarding hypertensive crises and DBP, although in the latter such effects were described concerning clinical blood pressure (BP).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Prolonged exposure to altitude-associated chronic hypoxia (CH) may cause high-altitude pulmonary hypertension (HAPH). Chronic intermittent hypobaric hypoxia (CIH) occurs in individuals who commute between sea level and high altitude. CIH is associated with repetitive acute hypoxic acclimatization and conveys the long-term risk of HAPH.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • New guidelines from the US and Europe suggest lower targets for office blood pressure treatment, specifically aiming for 130-139/80-89 and less than 130/80 mm Hg.
  • A study of nearly 10,000 hypertensive patients revealed that only 34.4% met these new office BP goals, with significant mortality risk only arising when 24-hour ambulatory BP exceeded the recommended limits.
  • Although many patients had mean office systolic BP controlled under previous guidelines, a substantial portion did not achieve the more stringent ABPM targets, indicating a continued need for monitoring and adjustment in hypertension treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A therapeutic vaccine for human Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis caused by Trypanosoma cruzi) is under development based on the success of vaccinating mice with DNA constructs expressing the antigens Tc24 and Tc-TSA-1. However, because DNA and nucleic acid vaccines produce less than optimal responses in humans, our strategy relies on administering a recombinant protein-based vaccine, together with adjuvants that promote Th1-type immunity. Here we describe a process for the purification and refolding of recombinant TSA-1 expressed in Escherichia coli.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a public health problem worldwide. We aimed to estimate the CKD prevalence in Spain and to examine the impact of the accumulation of cardiovascular risk factors (CVRF).

Material And Methods: We performed a nationwide, population-based survey evaluating 11,505 individuals representative of the Spanish adult population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Evidence for the influence of ambulatory blood pressure on prognosis derives mainly from population-based studies and a few relatively small clinical investigations. This study examined the associations of blood pressure measured in the clinic (clinic blood pressure) and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in a large cohort of patients in primary care.

Methods: We analyzed data from a registry-based, multicenter, national cohort that included 63,910 adults recruited from 2004 through 2014 in Spain.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Aim: Treatment-resistant hypertension (TRH) is associated with particular clinical features, nonadherence, and suboptimal treatment. We assessed possible associations of antihypertensive drug classes, specific agents inside each class, and types of combinations, with the presence of non-TRH vs. TRH, and with controlled vs.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Increased BP-variability predicts cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in hypertensives. This study aimed to examine short-term BP-variability according to renal function stage.

Methods: We included 16 546 patients [10 270 (62.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Aim: The prevalence and associated risks of white-coat hypertension (WCH) are still a matter of debate. We aimed to assess differences in prevalence and associated conditions of WCH defined on the basis of the normality of all daytime, night-time, and 24-h blood pressure (BP), only daytime, or only 24-h BP.

Methods: We selected 115 708 patients (45 020 untreated and 70 688 treated) from the Spanish Ambulatory BP Monitoring Registry.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lüneburg, Nicole, Patricia Siques, Julio Brito, Juan José De La Cruz, Fabiola León-Velarde, Juliane Hannemann, Cristian Ibanez, and Rainer Böger. Long-term intermittent exposure to high altitude elevates asymmetric dimethylarginine in first exposed young adults. High Alt Med Biol.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Objective: Elderly patients can be particularly susceptible to the adverse effects of excessive blood pressure (BP) lowering by antihypertensive treatment. The identification of hypotension is thus especially important. Ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) is a more accurate technique than office for classifying BP status.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: The European Guidelines on Hypertension define an office pulse pressure (PP) at least 60 mmHg in the elderly patient as asymptomatic organ damage. Our objective was to estimate the cutoff point of 24-h PP that best predicts office PP associated with higher cardiovascular risk (≥60 mmHg) in hypertensive older patients.

Methods: We studied all hypertensive patients at least 60 years with a first valid ambulatory blood pressure monitoring drawn from the Spanish ambulatory blood pressure monitoring registry.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Clinic blood pressure (BP) is usually higher than daytime ambulatory BP in hypertensive patients, but some recent studies have challenged this view, suggesting that this relationship is strongly influenced by age. We used the Spanish ambulatory BP monitoring cohort to examine differences between clinic and daytime BP by age among 104 639 adult hypertensive patients (office systolic/diastolic BP ≥140/90 mm Hg or treated) in usual primary-care practice, across the wide age spectrum. To assess the impact of age, cardiovascular variables, and clinic BP on the clinic-daytime BP differences, we built multivariable regression models of the average BP differences, white-coat hypertension (high clinic BP and normal daytime BP), and masked hypertension (normal clinic BP and high daytime BP).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We aimed to characterize 24-hour blood pressure (BP) values and categories in patients with inclusion/exclusion criteria of the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention (SPRINT) trial from the Spanish ABPM Registry. We selected patients older than 50 years, with office systolic BP (SBP) above 130 mm Hg and at high cardiovascular risk, but without diabetes, previous stroke, or symptomatic heart failure. Ambulatory BP was compared among BP categories.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Nighttime blood pressure (BP) and albuminuria are two important and independent predictors of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Here, we examined the quantitative differences in nighttime systolic BP (SBP) across albuminuria levels in patients with and without diabetes and chronic kidney disease.

Research Design And Methods: A total of 16,546 patients from the Spanish Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Registry cohort (mean age 59.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We aimed to determine the prevalence of hypotension and factors associated with the presence of this condition in treated hypertensive patients undergoing ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). Data were taken from the Spanish ABPM Registry. Office blood pressure (BP) and ABPM were determined using validated devices under standardized conditions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introducción: la desnutrición relacionada con la enfermedad (DRE) es un problema sociosanitario frecuente que afecta preferentemente a los mayores de 65 años, que aumenta la morbimortalidad y disminuye la calidad de vida.  Objetivo: estudiar la prevalencia de DRE en mayores de 65 años en diferentes centros sociosanitarios del Servicio Regional de Bienestar Social de la Comunidad de Madrid. Métodos: estudio transversal en 33 centros sociosanitarios de Madrid (6 centros de atención primaria [AP], 9 centros de mayores [CM], 9 hospitales [H] y 9 residencias [R]) seleccionados mediante muestreo polietápico.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

There is scarce information regarding ambulatory blood pressure (BP) achieved in daily practice with a wide range of antihypertensive drug combinations. We looked for differences in office and ambulatory BP among major drug combinations of two and three antihypertensive agents from a different drugs class. A total of 17187 patients treated with six types of two-drug combinations and 9724 treated with six types of three-drug combinations from the Spanish ABPM Registry were analyzed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The authors aimed to assess the reproducibility of normotension and white-coat, masked, and sustained hypertension in 839 untreated patients who underwent two separate assessments (median, 3; interquartile range, 0-13 months) by both office and ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring (ABPM). The proportion of patients falling into the same category in the two assessments was: 52% normotension and 55% white-coat, 47% masked, and 82% sustained hypertension. The most frequent switch was to sustained hypertension (26% of white-coat and 33% of masked hypertension).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We sought to determine the impact of bevacizumab on reduction of tumor size prior to chemoradiotherapy in unresected glioblastoma patients. Patients were randomized 1:1 to receive temozolomide (TMZ arm) or temozolomide plus bevacizumab (TMZ + BEV arm). In both arms, neoadjuvant treatment was temozolomide (85 mg/m(2), days 1-21, two 28-day cycles), concurrent radiation plus temozolomide, and six cycles of adjuvant temozolomide.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF