[Blood pressure monitors in primary healthcare centres].

Background: Blood pressure monitoring is one of the most common procedures in clinical medicine. Evaluation and treatment of hypertension are costly and have considerable implications for the individuals involved. Mercury manometers have been dominant for a century, but are currently being replaced by other types of equipment.

Left ventricular apical rotation is related to ambulatory blood pressure and body mass in healthy elderly females.

Objective: The interaction between left ventricular (LV) apical rotation, blood pressure (BP) and body mass in elderly females may reveal mechanisms involved in the syndrome of diastolic heart failure.

Methods: Thirty-one healthy females, age 69-84 years, were studied with echocardiography, ambulatory BP and an exercise capacity (VO2peak) test.

Results: LV apical short-axis loops were eligible for speckle tracking analysis in 27 subjects.

Screening strategies for chronic kidney disease in the general population: follow-up of cross sectional health survey.

Objective: To find an effective screening strategy for detecting patients with chronic kidney disease and to describe the natural course of the disease.

Design: Eight year follow-up of a cross sectional health survey (the HUNT II study).

Setting: Nord-Trøndelag County, Norway

Participants: 65,604 people (70.

Tissue Doppler imaging of the left ventricle in healthy elderly females does not support the concept of "isolated" diastolic dysfunction.

The concept of "isolated" left ventricular diastolic dysfunction has recently been challenged, since left ventricular contraction abnormalities can be demonstrated in subjects with normal left ventricular ejection fraction (EF). In this study of 35 healthy females (aged 65--80 years) with EF>50%, the ratio of peak early transmitral flow velocity to peak early diastolic myocardial velocity (E/Em) correlated significantly with peak systolic myocardial longitudinal velocity (Sm) (r=-0.57, p<0.

Cardiovascular disease in stable renal transplant patients in Norway: morbidity and mortality during a 5-yr follow-up.

Background: Although cardiovascular disease is a major cause of death after renal transplantation (Tx), predictors for cardiovascular events have not been well defined. Aims of this cross-sectional study were first to assess cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in stable renal Tx patients, and to identify predictors for cardiovascular events during long-term follow-up.

Methods: In all, 406 renal Tx patients (mean age: 47 yr, 60.