Neck circumference as reliable predictor of mechanical ventilation support in adult inpatients with COVID-19: A multicentric prospective evaluation.

Aims: COVID-19 is especially severe for elderly subjects with cardiometabolic and respiratory comorbidities. Neck circumference (NC) has been shown to be strongly related to cardiometabolic and respiratory illnesses even after adjustment for body mass index (BMI). We performed a prospective study to investigate the potential of NC to predict the need for invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) in adult COVID-19 inpatients.

Tibetan medicine: a unique heritage of person-centered medicine.

With a history going back approximately 2,500 years, the Tibetan medicine, known as Sowa Rigpa in the Tibetan language, is one of the world's oldest known traditional medicine. It originally developed during the pre-Buddhist era in the kingdom known as Shang Shung. As a traditional medicine, the future development of Tibetan medicine in Western countries is linked to being recognized as a popular and viable healthcare option providing an alternative clinical reality.

Left ventricular mass in dippers and nondippers with newly diagnosed hypertension.

Hypertensive subjects can be subdivided into 2 groups, dippers and nondippers, according to the presence or the lack of a nocturnal fall of blood pressure of more than 10%. Several studies have investigated cardiac organ damage in the 2 groups with discordant results, but they included subjects with different onset, severity, and treatment of hypertension. The authors selected 23 dippers and 17 nondippers affected by newly (< 1 year) diagnosed grades 1 and 2 hypertension, never treated, who underwent 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and M-mode echocardiography.

Blunted nocturnal fall in blood pressure and left ventricular mass in elderly individuals with recently diagnosed isolated systolic hypertension.

Background: Few studies have investigated the relationship between the lack of or reduction of nocturnal blood pressure (BP) fall and left ventricular mass (LVM) in elderly individuals with isolated systolic hypertension (ISH), notwithstanding the fact that ISH is the most frequent subtype of uncontrolled hypertension and a powerful risk factor for organ damage. The aim of this study was to identify the relationship between blunted nocturnal BP fall and LVM in elderly individuals with ISH that was recently diagnosed (within 2 years) and had never been treated.

Methods: A total of 64 elderly patients with recent ISH were recruited among the outpatients of the Hypertension Unit at 1st Institute of Medicine of "La Sapienza" University in Rome, and they underwent 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM).