Premenopausal women have increased risk of hypertensive target organ damage compared with men of similar age.

Background: The impact of high blood pressure (BP) on target organs (TO) in premenopausal women is not well known. The purpose of this study was to describe gender differences in TO involvement in a cohort of young-to-middle-aged subjects screened for stage 1 hypertension and followed for 8.2 years.

Resting heart rate as a predictor of body weight gain in the early stage of hypertension.

We did a prospective study to investigate whether clinic heart rate (HR) and 24-h ambulatory HR were independent predictors of subsequent increase in body weight (BW) in young subjects screened for stage 1 hypertension. The study was conducted in 1,008 subjects from the Hypertension and Ambulatory Recording Venetia Study (HARVEST) followed for an average of 7 years. Ambulatory HR was obtained in 701 subjects.

ACE2 and angiotensin 1-7 are increased in a human model of cardiovascular hyporeactivity: pathophysiological implications.

Background: ACE and ACE2 produce angiotensin II (Ang II), a vasopressor that induces cardiovascular remodeling, and Ang 1-7, a vasodilator with an antiremodeling effect. While Ang 1-7 has antiarrhythmic properties, at higher concentration it may induce ventricular tachycardia and sudden death. ACE2, therefore, may play an essential role in blood pressure homeostasis, in the long-term complications of hypertension (cardiovascular remodeling), and in the induction of cardiac electric abnormalities.

Diet and the kidney.

This is a short synopsis of the importance of nutrition and disease, which is especially centered on the achievements concerning renal diseases. With regard to renal nutrition, the paper analyzes the contributions of Beale, Peters and van Slyke, Addis, and Borst, and discusses the advent of the Giordano-Giovannetti diet and its modifications.

Angiotensin II signaling via type 2 receptors in a human model of vascular hyporeactivity: implications for hypertension.

Objective: Angiotensin II (Ang II) signaling via type 1 receptor (AT1R) has been extensively characterized, whereas Ang II signaling via type 2 receptors (AT2R), although counteracts actions mediated by AT1R, is still not completely understood. Bartter's/Gitelman's patients (BS/GS) have intrinsically blunted AT1R signaling, making them a good model to examine Ang II signaling via AT2R with particular emphasis on mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 1 (MKP-1) that interacts with the Ang II-stimulated ERK pathway of cell signaling.

Methods: BS/GS and healthy controls fibroblasts AT1R and AT2R level and the time course of Ang II's effect on MKP-1 levels and ERK1/2 phosphorylation over 1-h time course were assessed by western blot.

Oxidative stress-related proteins in a Conn's adenoma tissue. Relevance for aldosterone's prooxidative and proinflammatory activity.

Background And Aim: Angiotensin II (Ang II) induces oxidative stress (OxSt), which is essential for cardiovascular remodeling. Aldosterone also induces fibrosis and remodeling through direct effect on non-classical mineralocorticoid (MR) target tissues. However, studies on the role of aldosterone on OxSt and related factors in humans are lacking.

High angiotensin II state without cardiac remodeling (Bartter's and Gitelman's syndromes): are angiotensin II type 2 receptors involved?

Background/aims: While Angiotensin II (Ang II) is a major factor in the development of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and a pivotal role for Ang II signals via ERK1/2 has been identified, mechanism(s) responsible are still unclear. As Bartter's and Gitelman's syndrome patients (BS/GS) have increased Ang II, and yet normo/hypotension, hyporesponsiveness to pressors and blunted Ang II signaling via type 1 receptors (AT1R), this study assesses BS/GS's left ventricular (LV) mass and structure as well as Ang II induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation compared with essential hypertensive patients (EH) and normotensive healthy subjects (C) to gain insight into Ang II mediated processes.

Methods: Indices of cardiac hypertrophy were determined by M-mode, two-dimensional echo Doppler and ERK phosphorylation by Western blot.

Natural history of hypertension subtypes in young and middle-age adults.

Background: The evolution of hypertension (HT) subtypes in young-to-middle-age subjects is unclear.

Methods: We did a prospective study in 1,141 participants aged 18-45 years from the HARVEST study screened for stage 1 HT, and 101 nonhypertensive subjects of control during a median follow-up of 72.9 months.

Myocardial perfusion defects in Bartter and Gitelman syndromes.

Background: Normotensive hypokalaemic tubulopathies (Bartter and Gitelman syndromes (BS/GS)) are genetic diseases that are considered benign. However, QT prolongation, left ventricular dysfunction and reduction of cardiac index upon exercise leading to arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death have been reported in these patients. Hence, we aimed to verifying whether an isometric exercise could represent a useful tool for the identification of patients at risk for future cardiac events.

Heart rate as a predictor of development of sustained hypertension in subjects screened for stage 1 hypertension: the HARVEST Study.

Objective: Whether heart rate predicts the development of sustained hypertension in individuals with hypertension is not well known. We carried out a prospective study to investigate whether clinic and ambulatory heart rates assessed at baseline and changes in clinic heart rate during 6 months of follow-up were independent predictors of subsequent blood pressure (BP).

Methods: The study was conducted in a cohort of 1103 white, stage 1 hypertensive individuals from the HARVEST study, never treated for hypertension and followed-up for an average of 6.

Glomerular hyperfiltration predicts the development of microalbuminuria in stage 1 hypertension: the HARVEST.

Factors related to the development of microalbuminuria in hypertension are not well known. We did a prospective study to investigate whether glomerular hyperfiltration precedes the development of microalbuminuria in hypertension. We assessed 502 never-treated subjects screened for stage 1 hypertension without microalbuminuria at baseline and followed up for 7.

Frequency of bicuspid aortic valve in young male conscripts by echocardiogram.

The database of echocardiographic examinations performed during the military screening of 20,946 young men in northeastern Italy was systematically reviewed to assess the frequency, hemodynamic characteristics, and aortic sizes of subjects with bicuspid aortic valves (BAVs). One hundred sixty-seven patients with BAVs were identified (0.8%), of whom 80 (48%) were diagnosed de novo during military screening.

Microalbuminuria, renal function and development of sustained hypertension: a longitudinal study in the early stage of hypertension.

Objective: Microalbuminuria (MA) is a marker of adverse outcome in hypertension. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of MA with cardiovascular risk factors and glomerular hyperfiltration in the early stage of hypertension and to assess its predictive value for the development of sustained hypertension requiring antihypertensive treatment.

Design And Participants: We studied 1041 young stage 1 hypertensive subjects.

G-protein beta3-subunit gene 825T allele and hypertension: a longitudinal study in young grade I hypertensives.

The 825T allele of the GNB3 gene has been associated with essential hypertension and obesity in cross-sectional studies. We have therefore planned a longitudinal cohort study to assess whether the GNB3 825T allele is predictive of blood pressure increase in young subjects with grade I hypertension. We genotyped at the GNB3 825 locus 461 participants of the Hypertension and Ambulatory Recording Venetia Study (HARVEST) study (age, 18 to 45 years) at low cardiovascular risk, according to 1999 ISH/WHO criteria.

Left ventricular diastolic function in pregnancy-induced hypertension.

Background: Hypertension occurs in some 10% of pregnancies and its effects on the left ventricular (LV) morphology and systolic function have been well elucidated. Little is known, however, about the changes in LV diastolic function in such a condition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the LV diastolic function in women with pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) using new Doppler echocardiographic methods.

Is menopause an independent cardiovascular risk factor? Evidence from population-based studies.

The question on whether menopause is an independent cardiovascular risk factor is still under debate. The results of four studies conducted by our staff in North East Italy, including > 11,000 subjects from the general population and covering a range of ages from 18 to 95 years, have been employed. We found apparently higher blood pressure (BP) values in naturally menopausal than in fertile women, but this difference disappeared after age-correction, or after identifying fertile and menopausal age-matched women.

Heart rate during myocardial infarction: relationship with one-year global mortality in men and women.

Background: Elevated heart rate (HR) has been found to be related to an increased death rate in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), but sex differences and optimal timing for HR measurement have not been sufficiently investigated.

Objectives: To verify the predictive value of HR for one-year mortality in a cohort of subjects hospitalized for AMI, with men and women considered separately.

Patients And Methods: HR was measured in 424 patients (303 men and 121 women) with constant sinus HR, on the first, third and seventh days after hospital admission for AMI.

Left ventricular contractile performance in the early stage of hypertension in humans.

The aim of the present study was to assess how cardiac structural changes contribute to increasing left ventricular pump function during exercise in subjects with mild hypertension. In 23 young male subjects with mild hypertension and 12 male normotensive control subjects, left ventricular function was measured echocardiographically using the fractional shortening/ meridional stress relationship at rest and during longlasting exercise at the anaerobic threshold. Mean exercise duration and intensity were 61 (SEM 1.

Independent predictors of isolated clinic ('white-coat') hypertension.

Background: Hypertension guidelines recommend 24 h ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitoring in hypertensive subjects with suspected isolated clinic hypertension (ICH). However, the pre-test probability of ICH based on the distribution of its independent predictors has not yet been estimated in hypertensive subjects with mildly elevated blood pressure.

Objective: To ascertain the independent predictors of ICH in mildly hypertensive subjects.

Ambulatory blood pressure predicts end-organ damage only in subjects with reproducible recordings. HARVEST Study Investigators. Hypertension and Ambulatory Recording Venetia Study.

Objective: To determine whether the prediction of target-organ damage varies according to the reproducibility of 24 h blood pressure.

Setting: Seventeen hypertension clinics in northeast Italy.

Main Outcome Measures: Correlations of left ventricular mass index and albumin excretion rate with 24 h and office blood pressures in relation to tertiles of ambulatory blood pressure reproducibility.

Factors underlying the increase in carotid intima-media thickness in borderline hypertensives.

To define the role played by various risk and behavioral factors in the increase of carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) observed in borderline hypertensives. Using B-mode ultrasonography, we compared 97 borderline hypertensives enrolled in the HARVEST study to 27 normotensive controls. Intima-media thickness was measured in the right and left common carotid artery, bulb, and internal carotid artery.

Prognostic significance of hypertension and albuminuria for early mortality after acute myocardial infarction.

Objective: To assess the risk of mortality associated with hypertension and microalbuminuria in patients with acute myocardial infarction.

Design: A prospective study.

Setting: Intensive care units in three Italian general hospitals.

White-coat hypertension: a selection bias? Harvest Study Investigators. Hypertension and Ambulatory Recording Venetia Study.

Background: Results of several studies have shown that subjects with white-coat hypertension (WCH) have more target-organ damage than do normotensive controls with similar ambulatory blood pressures.

Objective: To investigate whether this is due to a selection bias.

Setting: Seventeen hypertension clinics in northeast Italy.