Effects of exercise training on systo-diastolic ventricular dysfunction in patients with hypertension: an echocardiographic study with tissue velocity and strain imaging evaluation.

There is a lack of detailed data regarding the effect of exercise training in pharmacologically treated hypertensive patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of exercise training on left and right ventricular morphologic and functional parameters by means of conventional echocardiography and sensitive new echocardiographic techniques including tissue Doppler velocity and strain imaging, that were performed in pharmacologically treated hypertensive patients at baseline and at the end of a specific exercise training protocol for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. We selected 116 pharmacologically treated hypertensive patients who completed the exercise training protocol.

Determination of the longest intrapatient left ventricular electrical delay may predict acute hemodynamic improvement in patients after cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Background: One of the reasons for patient nonresponse to cardiac resynchronization therapy is a suboptimal left ventricular (LV) pacing site. LV electric delay (Q-LV interval) has been indicated as a prognostic parameter of cardiac resynchronization therapy response. This study evaluates the LV delay for the optimization of the LV pacing site.

Chronic competitive flow from a patent arterial or venous graft to the circumflex system does not impair the long-term patency of internal thoracic artery to left anterior descending grafts in patients with isolated predivisional left main disease: long-term angiographic results of 2 different revascularization strategies.

Objective: To compare 2 different surgical approaches to treatment of patients with isolated predivisional stenosis of the left main coronary artery (IOSLM) and to evaluate the effect of chronic competitive flow from a patent arterial or venous graft to the circumflex system on the long-term patency of internal thoracic artery (ITA) to left anterior descending grafts.

Methods: Thirty-two patients with IOSLM were treated at our institutions during a 9-year period: 14 patients received double ITA grafts, whereas 18 underwent ITA graft plus saphenous vein (SV) bypass. All patients were reviewed clinically and angiographically at long-term follow-up.

Long-term results of an open flexible prosthetic band for mitral insufficiency.

Background: use of a prosthetic ring is an integral part of any mitral valve repair and can influence the long-term stability of the results. We evaluated the long-term results of the AnnuloFlex ring implanted as an open flexible band in patients affected by degenerative mitral disease.

Methods: between 2001 and 2010, 82 patients (52 women, 30 men) with a mean age of 62 years, underwent repair of a prolapsing mitral valve with an AnnuloFlex band.

Epstein-Barr virus load in children infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in Uganda.

Background: Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is involved in a wide range of malignancies, particularly in immunocompromised subjects. In Africa, EBV primary infection occurs during early childhood, but little is known about the EBV load in Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected children.

Methods: Blood samples from 213 HIV-1-infected children, 140 of whom were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), were collected at the Nsambya Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, and obtained for dried blood spot analysis.

A minimum-labeling approach for reconstructing protein networks across multiple conditions.

Background: The sheer amounts of biological data that are generated in recent years have driven the development of network analysis tools to facilitate the interpretation and representation of these data. A fundamental challenge in this domain is the reconstruction of a protein-protein subnetwork that underlies a process of interest from a genome-wide screen of associated genes. Despite intense work in this area, current algorithmic approaches are largely limited to analyzing a single screen and are, thus, unable to account for information on condition-specific genes, or reveal the dynamics (over time or condition) of the process in question.

Elucidating influenza inhibition pathways via network reconstruction.

Viruses evade detection by the host immune system through the suppression of antiviral pathways. These pathways are thus obscured when measuring the host response to viral infection and cannot be inferred by current network reconstruction methodology. Here we aim to close this gap by providing a novel computational framework for the inference of such inhibited pathways as well as the proteins targeted by the virus to achieve this inhibition.

Impact of wastewater treatment processes on antimicrobial resistance genes and their co-occurrence with virulence genes in Escherichia coli.

An increase in the frequency of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in bacteria including Escherichia coli could be a threat to public health. This study investigated the impact of activated sludge and physicochemical wastewater treatment processes on the prevalence of ARGs in E. coli isolates.

Nonalcoholic Fatty liver: a possible new target for type 2 diabetes prevention and treatment.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disorder worldwide. Several lines of evidence have indicated a pathogenic role of insulin resistance, and a strong association with type 2 diabetes (T2MD) and metabolic syndrome. Importantly, NAFLD appears to enhance the risk for T2MD, as well as worsen glycemic control and cardiovascular disease in diabetic patients.

Cognitive Functions across the GNB3 C825T Polymorphism in an Elderly Italian Population.

To verify whether the C825T polymorphism of the GNB3 influences the response to neuropsychological tests, mini-mental state examination, digit span (DS), immediate and delayed prose memory, memory with interference at 10 and 30 seconds (MI 10 and 30), trail making tests (TMTs) A and B, abstraction task, verbal fluency (VF) test, figure drawing and copying, overlapping figures test and clock test were performed in 220 elderly men and women free from clinical dementia and from neurological and psychiatric diseases randomly taken from the Italian general population and analysed across the C825T polymorphism. The performance of DS, immediate and delayed prose memory, VF, and TMTs was worse in subjects who were TT for the polymorphism in comparison to the C-carriers. The performance of all tests declined with age.

How can we identify the optimal pacing site in the right ventricular septum? A simplified method applicable during the standard implanting procedure.

Aims: A short paced (p) QRS duration (d) can be a marker for selecting the most appropriate RV pacing site. Although this could be achieved by continual 12-Lead ECG monitoring, such a technique is not applicable during pacemaker (PM) implantation. The purpose of this study was to validate a method for identifying the optimal site for RV septum pacing using simple markers derived from few real-time ECG leads and fluoroscopy (F).

Hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent predictor of sub-clinical carotid vascular damage in subjects with grade-1 hypertension.

Although the role of homocysteinemia (Hcy) as a coronary risk factor (RF) has been scaled down, hyper-Hcy and carotid vascular damage (CVD) are still considered as RFs for cerebrovascular events. In 276 grade-1 hypertensives (160 men and 116 women aged 59.6 ± 15.

Aflatoxin, fumonisin and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli infections in calves and the effectiveness of Celmanax®/Dairyman's Choice™ applications to eliminate morbidity and mortality losses.

Mycotoxin mixtures are associated with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infections in mature cattle. STEC are considered commensal bacteria in mature cattle suggesting that mycotoxins provide a mechanism that converts this bacterium to an opportunistic pathogen. In this study, we assessed the mycotoxin content of hemorrhaged mucosa in dairy calves during natural disease outbreaks, compared the virulence genes of the STECs, evaluated the effect of the mucosal mycotoxins on STEC toxin expression and evaluated a Celmanax®/Dairyman's Choice™ application to alleviate disease.

Normal biodistribution pattern and physiologic variants of 18F-DOPA PET imaging.

Dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA) is a neutral amino acid that resembles natural L-dopa (dopamine precursor). It enters the catecholamine metabolic pathway of endogenous L-DOPA in the brain and peripheral tissues. It is amenable to labeling with fluorine-18(F) for PET imaging and was originally used in patients with Parkinson's disease to assess the integrity of the striatal dopaminergic system.

Orthostatic hypotension does not increase cardiovascular risk in the elderly at a population level.

Background: The general belief that orthostatic hypotension (OH) predisposes to cardiovascular events is based on sparse and contradictory data, rarely derived from population studies.

Methods: A total of 1,016 men and women aged ≥65 years was studied in a 12-year epidemiological population-based study. Cardiovascular events were detected in subjects with and without OH (blood pressure (BP) decrease ≥20mm Hg for systolic or ≥10mm Hg for diastolic), and Cox analysis was performed including OH as an independent variable.

Aliskiren improves blood pressure control and prevents cardiac damage in high-risk hypertensive subjects.

Aim: Longitudinal study aimed to evaluate the antihypertensive efficacy, safety and the effect on cardiac damage of Aliskiren, administered to a group of high-risk hypertensive patients with mild impairment of renal function and uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) despite a two-drug antihypertensive treatment.

Methods: One hundred and six patients (56 men and 50 females) aged 61.9±12.

In PCOS patients the addition of low-dose spironolactone induces a more marked reduction of clinical and biochemical hyperandrogenism than metformin alone.

Background & Aims: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is characterized by ovarian dysfunction and hyperandrogenism and by insulin resistance and related metabolic alterations. Both metformin and anti-androgens, such as spironolactone, are used to ameliorate the different aspects of this disorder. We investigated whether therapy with metformin plus low-dose spironolactone is more effective than metformin alone in PCOS patients.

Anti-hypertensive treatment in pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma: current management and therapeutic features.

Pheochromocytoma (PH) and paraganglioma (PG) are neuroendocrine neoplasms arising from chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla and the sympathetic ganglia, respectively. Although are unusual cause of hypertension (HT) accounting for at most 0.1-0.

Medical professional values and education: a survey on italian students of the medical doctor school in medicine and surgery.

Background: The values such as participation/empathy, communication/sharing, self-awareness, moral integrity, sensitivity/trustfulness, commitment to ongoing professional development, and sense of duty linked to the practice of the medical professionalism were defined by various professional oaths.

Aims: The aim of this study was to evaluate how these values are considered by the students of the degree course of medicine.

Materials And Methods: Four hundred twenty three students (254 females, 169 males) taking part of the first, fourth, and fifth years of the degree course in medicine were asked to answer seven questions.

Conversion ratio between Dysport and Botox in clinical practice: an overview of available evidence.

The optimal conversion ratio between Dysport and Botox--the two botulinum neurotoxin type A products (BoNT-As) supported by the larger bulk of evidence-has been extensively debated, because of its broad medical and economic implications. The article discusses the available evidence on the conversion ratio between Dysport and Botox in adults affected by spasticity, cervical dystonia, blepharospasm and hemifacial spasm, with a focus on clinical trials that specifically addressed this issue. In addition, some suggestions on the conversion ratio between Dysport and Xeomin can be extrapolated, since Xeomin has the same efficacy and safety profile as Botox and is exchangeable with Botox with a 1:1 conversion ratio.

Incidence and predictors of heart failure hospitalization and death in permanent pacemaker patients: a single-centre experience over medium-term follow-up.

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the incidence and clinical predictors of the development of new-onset heart failure (HF) over medium-term follow-up, in patients treated with permanent pacing in daily clinical practice.

Methods And Results: We retrospectively enrolled all consecutive patients who underwent single- or dual-chamber pacemaker implantation at the study centre. Patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤35% or a prior diagnosis of HF were excluded.

Evaluating the pathogenic potential of environmental Escherichia coli by using the Caenorhabditis elegans infection model.

The detection and abundance of Escherichia coli in water is used to monitor and mandate the quality of drinking and recreational water. Distinguishing commensal waterborne E. coli isolates from those that cause diarrhea or extraintestinal disease in humans is important for quantifying human health risk.

Aliskiren improves blood pressure control and prevents cardiac damage in high-risk hypertensive subjects.

Aim: Longitudinal study aimed to evaluate the antihypertensive efficacy, safety and the effect on cardiac damage of Aliskiren, administered to a group of high-risk hypertensive patients with mild impairment of renal function and uncontrolled blood pressure (BP) despite a two-drug antihypertensive treatment. Methods: One hundred and six patients (56 men and 50 females) aged 61.9±12.