[Multiple thrombo-embolic episodes in a patient with alcoholic cardiomyopathy - a case report].

A case of 42-year-old male with alcoholic dilated cardiomyopathy is presented. The patient was admitted to the hospital due to new onset heart failure and neurological symptoms due to systemic emboli. Transesophageal echocardiography revealed the presence of left atrial appendage thrombi which were the most probable cause of thrombo-embolic complications.

Orthostatic hypotension in elderly women with congestive heart failure.

Orthostatic hypotension is common in the elderly and could be the cause of impaired vision, dizziness, fainting spells and falls. To date, studies on orthostatic hypotension have chiefly concentrated on elderly patients in nursing homes, outpatients or healthy subjects. Congestive heart failure (CHF) is one of the most common causes of hospitalization and pharmacotherapy in the elderly, but little is known about the orthostatic hypotension in patients with CHF.

Echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular structure and function in elderly women with congestive heart failure.

The aim of this investigation was an echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular structure and function in elderly women who were hospitalized due to congestive heart failure. Sixty-three women with heart failure aged 70-100 years (mean age, 82 years) were studied; medical histories were taken, medical examinations and chest X-ray studies, along with ECG and M-mode, 2D-mode and Doppler echocardiography were performed. Echocardiography revealed that the predominant structural lesions involved the cardiac valves; in the majority of cases, there was thickening and calcification of the mitral and aortic valves, but calcification of the mitral and aortic annulus was also frequent.

Correlation between aortic pulse wave velocity and norepinephrine, epinephrine, aldosterone and plasma renin activity in very elderly subjects and in patients with congestive heart failure.

The expression of cardiovascular disease in older patients results from the interaction between age-related changes and the disease process itself. It is still unclear whether the physiologic and pathophysiologic changes that occur with advanced age accelerate or compound the factors responsible for congestive heart failure (CHF). Whether, and to what extent, arterial compliance is altered in CHF in the elderly is not clear.

[Blood morphology in elderly persons over 90 years old].

In order to assess blood cell count in a late senescence we examined 56 persons (44 women and 12 men) in age 90-99, in a good condition. Over 70% of obtained results were in normal range. The most frequent abnormalities were: anemia (28.