Acute myocardial infarction, intraventricular thrombus and risk of systemic embolism.

The development of left ventricular thrombus (LVT) is a well-known and serious complication of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) due to the risk of systemic arterial embolism (SE), which is variable in its clinical picture and has potentially serious consequences depending on the extent of target organ damage. SE results in an increase in mortality and morbidity in these patients. LVT is one of the main causes of the development of ischaemic cardio-embolic cardiovascular events (CVE) after MI and the determination of the source of cardiac embolus is crucial for the initiation of adequate anticoagulant therapy in secondary prevention.

Addition of spironolactone in patients with resistant arterial hypertension (ASPIRANT)--study protocol.

Background: There is currently limited data on which drug should be used to improve blood pressure control in patients with resistant hypertension. Recent observational trials reported spironolactone as having good effects. This study is designed to assess the effect of the addition of 25 mg of spironolactone on blood pressure (BP) in patients with resistant arterial hypertension.

Addition of spironolactone in patients with resistant arterial hypertension (ASPIRANT): a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

There is currently limited data on which drug should be used to improve blood pressure (BP) control in patients with resistant hypertension. This study was designed to assess the effect of the addition of 25 mg of spironolactone on BP in patients with resistant arterial hypertension. Patients with office systolic BP >140 mm Hg or diastolic BP >90 mm Hg despite treatment with at least 3 antihypertensive drugs, including a diuretic, were enrolled in this double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial.

Chronic smoking and its effect on arterial stiffness.

Aims: The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of chronic smoking on arterial stiffness at a peripheral site using pulse wave analysis.

Methods: Forty two non-smokers (17 males, 25 females) of average age 20.2 +/- 1.

Optical characterization of nonabsorbing and weakly absorbing thin films with the wavelengths related to extrema in spectral reflectances.

In this contribution a new efficient modification of a method that enables us to perform the optical characterization of nonabsorbing and weakly absorbing thin films without using the absolute values of the reflectances measured is presented. Namely, this modification is based on determining the values of the wavelengths corresponding to touching the spectral dependences of the reflectances of the studied films measured for several angles of incidence with the envelopes of maxima and minima of these spectral dependences. By means of combining the explicit formulas containing the wavelengths mentioned and the suitable iteration procedure one can evaluate the values of the thicknesses and spectral dependences of the refractive indices of the films analyzed in reliable and precise ways.