Predictors of new atherosclerotic carotid plaque development in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: a longitudinal study.

Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality attributed to both classical risk factors and chronic inflammation. We assessed longitudinally the factors associated with new carotid plaques in nondiabetic RA patients and apparently healthy individuals.

Methods: In our present prospective observational study, carotid plaques were identified by ultrasonography at baseline and follow-up end, separated by an average of 3.

Percutaneous radiofrequency ablation for malignant liver tumours in challenging locations.

Purpose: To evaluate the treatment results of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) for primary and metastatic malignant liver tumours in challenging locations and also to present the treatment strategy that was used in these cases.

Patients And Methods: From January 2007 to January 2010, we performed CT-guided RFA on 528 lesions in 402 patients (265 men and 137 women; mean age 65.1 years, range 19-82 years) with liver tumours (primary and metastatic) of which 98 lesions in 84 patients (55 men and 29 women; mean age 67.

Recently postmenopausal women have the same prevalence of subclinical carotid atherosclerosis as age and traditional risk factor matched men.

Objective: To compare the prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis between postmenopausal women and men of similar age early after the onset of menopause.

Methods: In the first part of this cross-sectional study 186 non-diabetic young postmenopausal women (n = 101, menopausal age ≤ 10 years) and men (n = 85) aged 40-60 years without overt CVD were consecutively recruited from the outpatients clinics of an academic hospital. Subclinical carotid atherosclerosis was assessed by high-resolution ultrasonography.

Pilot study of circulating prolactin levels and endothelial function in men with hypertension.

Background: Hyperprolactinemia has been recently associated with hypertension and endothelial dysfunction in humans, confirming animal studies performed in the 1970s that showed high prolactin levels to exert positive chronotropic and vasoconstrictive effects. Whether prolactin affects endothelial function, in the absence of hyperprolactinemia, remains unknown. Considering that secretion of prolactin presents circadian rhythmicity, we tested the hypothesis that in patients with hypertension, who present diurnal variation in their endothelial function as well, prolactin levels correlate with endothelial function and/or blood pressure.

Subclinical peripheral arterial disease in rheumatoid arthritis.

Objective: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with accelerated atherosclerosis in the carotid arteries, but little is known about the magnitude of this process in peripheral arteries. Assessing preclinical atherosclerosis in both arterial beds in RA might provide additional prognostic value during risk stratification for primary prevention. Therefore in the present structural study we examined femoral versus carotid subclinical atherosclerosis in RA and controls.

Time rate of blood pressure variation is superior to central hemodynamics as an associate of carotid intima-media thickness.

Objective: The extent of target organ damage has been associated with both central hemodynamics and arterial stiffening, and the time rate of blood pressure (BP) changes in essential hypertension. However, the relative significance of these parameters has not been examined.

Methods: We recruited 232 consecutive uncomplicated newly diagnosed hypertensive patients and 241 normotensive individuals.

Reversal of increased arterial stiffness in severely depressed women after 6-week antidepressant treatment.

Background: Increased arterial stiffness (AS) might be one significant acute mediator of the well-attested association between female depression and cardiovascular disease.

Methods: We tested this hypothesis in an inpatient sample of 20 drug-free women undergoing a new clinically severe major depressive episode of recent onset with an adequately matched mentally healthy control group. Patients' clinical (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) and vascular (Pulse-Wave-Velocity, PWV) assessments were performed both before the initiation and after the completion of their six-week antidepressant treatment.

Atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis versus diabetes: a comparative study.

Objective: The extent to which atherosclerosis is accelerated in chronic inflammatory diseases is not established. We compared preclinical atherosclerosis in rheumatoid arthritis with diabetes mellitus, a known coronary heart disease equivalent.

Methods And Results: Endothelial function, arterial stiffness, carotid intima-media thickness, and analysis of atheromatous plaques were examined in 84 rheumatoid arthritis patients without cardiovascular disease versus healthy controls matched for age, sex, and traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors, as well as in 48 diabetes patients matched for age, sex, and disease duration with 48 rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Prolactin and preclinical atherosclerosis in menopausal women with cardiovascular risk factors.

Hyperprolactinemia has been associated with endothelial dysfunction and an adverse cardiovascular risk profile, possibly as a result of the vasoconstrictive properties of prolactin. In this cross-sectional study, we examined the hypothesis that prolactin contributes to the increased cardiovascular risk occurring in early menopause by studying apparently healthy women without hyperprolactinemia. Prolactin serum levels were measured by immunoassay in 76 women aged 54.

Arterial stiffness but not intima-media thickness is increased in euthyroid patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis: The effect of menopausal status.

Background: Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) is an autoimmune disorder associated with increased cardiovascular risk, mainly as a result of accelerated atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of HT on carotid atherosclerosis and arterial stiffness, as possible mediators of this vascular impairment. Menopausal status was also considered in this setting since HT is mainly prevalent in women.

Heartscore calculated in individuals younger than 40 years is related to vascular markers of early atherosclerosis.

Background: Heartscore is not well validated for individuals less than 40 years of age. In the latest guidelines a relative risk chart is provided with the proposal to be used for young adults aged less than 60 years instead of projecting risk at the age of 60 years. Moreover, coronary artery disease is insidiously manifested in younger patients.