Echocardiographic Alterations of Cardiac Geometry and Function in Patients with Familial Partial Lipodystrophy.

Background: Cardiomyopathy associated with partial lipodystrophy (PL) has not been well described yet.

Objective: To characterize cardiac morphology and function in PL.

Methods: Patients with familial PL and controls were prospectively assessed by transthoracic echocardiography and with speckle-tracking echocardiography (global longitudinal strain, GLS).

Cardiac Alterations in Patients with Familial Lipodystrophy.

Familial lipodystrophy is a rare genetic condition in which individuals have, besides metabolic changes and body fat deposits, a type of cardiomyopathy that has not been well studied. Many of the patients develop cardiovascular changes, the most commonly reported in the literature being the expression of a type of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This article, presented as a bibliographic review, reviews the clinical and cardiovascular imaging aspects in this scenario of cardiomyopathy in a rare metabolic disease, based on the latest scientific evidence published in the area.

The costs of type 2 diabetes mellitus outpatient care in the Brazilian public health system.

Objective: The prevalence of type 2 diabetes has shown a significant increase in parallel with health care costs. The objective of the Brazilian Study on Diabetes Costs (ESCUDI study) was to estimate direct and indirect costs of type 2 diabetes outpatient care in the Brazilian Public Health Care System.

Methods: Data were collected from different levels of health care in eight Brazilian cities in 2007.