Apoptosis and Acute Brain Ischemia in Ischemic Stroke.

Apoptosis may contribute to a significant proportion of neuron death following acute brain ischemia (ABI), but the underlying mechanisms are still not fully understood. Brain ischemia may lead to stroke, which is one of the main causes of long-term morbidity and mortality in both developed and developing countries. Therefore, stroke prevention and treatment is clinically important.

Relationships Between Alcohol Consumption, Smoking Status and Food Habits in Greek Adolescents. Vascular Implications for the Future.

Background: Addictive behaviours in adolescents such as alcohol consumption and smoking are rapidly increasing worldwide.

Objective: No previous study has examined smoking status and alcohol consumption in adolescents of Northern Greece in relation to their food habits. Therefore, we assessed the smoking status and alcohol consumption, as well the food habits, of this population.

Modeling the oral glucose tolerance test in normal and impaired glucose tolerant states: a population approach.

Objective: The conventional approach to analyzing data from oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT) requires model identification in each individual separately (standard two stage, STS), ignoring knowledge about the population as a whole. In practice, however, the OGTT is sparsely sampled and individual estimates are often not resolvable from available data. This weakness is often encountered in large scale trials or epidemiological studies, leading to either multiple imputations or simply much less data available for analysis.

Lipids, Statins and Heart Failure: An Update.

Background: Heart failure (HF) is characterized by cardiac functional and structural alterations, progressively leading to clinical symptoms and signs. Certain neurohormonal systems (i.e.

Heart Score Estimation by Specialized Nurses in a Greek Urban Population.

Aims: Specialized nurses estimated the HeartScore in an urban Greek population by recognizing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in the setting of the Onassis Cardiovascular Prevention Program (OCPP). They also provided nursing consultation and assessed the clinical and biochemical characteristics of the studied population.

Methods And Results: Individuals were recruited through TV announcements and via the website of the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Centre.

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and the Elderly: An Update on Drugs Used to Treat Glycaemia.

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and its complications are more prevalent in the elderly. As the general population worldwide is ageing, effective and safe treatment of older T2DM patients is becoming more important in clinical practice. Elderly T2DM patients should be carefully evaluated for functional, mental, geriatric and medical disorders before the initiation of antidiabetic drug therapy and regularly monitored thereafter.

Risk Scores After Acute Coronary Syndrome.

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is associated with both short- and long-term unfavorable prognosis. Therefore, medical societies developed risk scores for predicting mortality and assessing decision-making regarding early aggressive treatment in patients presenting an ACS. The Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction and the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events risk scores are the most extensively investigated scores for ACS.

Abnormal Peri-Organ or Intra-organ Fat (APIFat) Deposition: An Underestimated Predictor of Vascular Risk?

Adipose tissue, a major endocrine organ, consists of brown and white adipocytes. Brown fat may play a beneficial role in cardiometabolic disorders. Brown adipose tissue can also improve glucose and lipid metabolism.

Is There an Association Between Carotid-Femoral Pulse Wave Velocity and Coronary Heart Disease in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease: A Pilot Study.

Arterial stiffness has been shown to predict cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) is regarded the gold standard marker of arterial stiffness. In previous studies, cfPWV was associated with the presence of coronary heart disease (CHD).

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and dyslipidemia: An update.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease worldwide, progressing from simple steatosis to necroinflammation and fibrosis (leading to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, NASH), and in some cases to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Inflammation, oxidative stress and insulin resistance are involved in NAFLD development and progression. NAFLD has been associated with several cardiovascular (CV) risk factors including obesity, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, hypertension and smoking.

Exploring the Management of Statin Intolerant Patients: 2016 and Beyond.

Statins remain the cornerstone of lipid-lowering treatment. They significantly reducing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in primary and secondary prevention settings. Statin-treated patients may present adverse events (clinical and/or biochemical) that can lead to treatment discontinuation or a reduction in the dose of statins.

The effect of bergamot on dyslipidemia.

Background: Statins are the most common used lipid lowering drugs but they may cause adverse effects and despite their well-established therapeutic benefits residual cardiovascular (CV) risk remains. The use of other lipid lowering drugs and nutraceuticals alone or as add-on lipid-modifying therapy can be an option in such cases. Several studies have reported health-related properties of the Citrus fruits, among which bergamot (Citrus bergamia Risso) differs from others by particularly high content of certain compounds.

Statins and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: An Update After 1 Year.

In a review [1] published in this journal in 2014 we updated the role of statin treatment in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). This is an important topic because the prevalence of T2DM is increasing and this disease is associated with a high risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as well as microvascular complications [1]. The relationship between T2DM and statins is further complicated since these drugs can cause new onset diabetes (NOD) although there is an overall benefit in terms of preventing vascular events [1, 2].