Severely vitamin D-deficient athletes present smaller hearts than sufficient athletes.

Background: Vitamin D (25(OH)D) deficiency has associations with bowl/colon cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Many athletes are vitamin D deficient, yet no studies have examined the association between 25(OH)D status and cardiac structure and function in healthy athletes.

Design: A total of 506 national-level athletes [football (50%), handball (23%), volleyball (16%), and basketball (11%)] and 244 control participants presented for precompetition medical assessment.

Systematic echocardiography is not efficacious when screening an ethnically diverse cohort of athletes in West Asia.

Background: The clinical and economic value of including systematic echocardiography (ECHO) alongside the 12-lead electrocardiograpm (ECG) when undertaking pre-participation screening in athletes has not been examined, yet several sporting organistations recommend its inclusion.

Design: To examine the efficacy of systematic ECHO alongside the ECG, to identify sudden cardiac death (SCD) disease and to provide a cost-analysis of a government-funded pre-participation screening programme.

Methods: A total 1628 athletes presented for cardiological consultation, ECG, and ECHO as standard, with further cardiac examinations performed if necessary to confirm or exclude pathology.

ECG and morphologic adaptations in Arabic athletes: are the European Society of Cardiology's recommendations for the interpretation of the 12-lead ECG appropriate for this ethnicity?

Aims: To examine the cardiac structure and function of Arabic athletes and to establish if the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines for the interpretation of an athlete's ECG are applicable to this ethnicity.

Methods: 600 high-level Arabic, 415 Black African, 160 Caucasian male athletes (exercising ≥6 h/week) and 201 Arabic controls presented for ECG and echocardiographic screening.

Results: 9 athletes (0.

Do big athletes have big hearts? Impact of extreme anthropometry upon cardiac hypertrophy in professional male athletes.

Aim: Differentiating physiological cardiac hypertrophy from pathology is challenging when the athlete presents with extreme anthropometry. While upper normal limits exist for maximal left ventricular (LV) wall thickness (14 mm) and LV internal diameter in diastole (LVIDd, 65 mm), it is unknown if these limits are applicable to athletes with a body surface area (BSA) >2.3 m(2).

[Sirolimus-eluting stent in the prevention of restenosis in small coronary arteries].

Background: Angioplasty of coronary arteries with a small diameter (commonly defined as diameter inferior than 2.75 mm) is associated with a high rate of restenosis and revascularization. Since the use of Drug Eluting Stents (DES) and considering their good results on simple lesions compared to other techniques (balloon dilation and bare metal stents), many studies have also demonstrated the superiority of DES in reducing restenosis and revascularization of complex lesions in particular lesions on coronary arteries with small diameter.

[Chronic heart failure: role of Doppler echocardiography in the evaluation of mortality risk].

Background: Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Despite recent improvements in the management of this condition, the overall prognosis remains poor. Echocardiography is the most useful test in the evaluation of systolic and diastolic function and has also a prognostic value.

Therapy guided by gastric impedance spectroscopy in a septic shock model in pigs.

The disruption of the gastric mucosa plays a key role in the evolution of shock and it is the "motor of multiple organ failure"; in this sense, no clinically useful method to directly monitor the level of mucosal ischemic injury is available yet to guide appropriate therapy for the critically ill. An experimental model was developed in order to demonstrate that resuscitation therapy by gastric impedance spectroscopy, using a minimally invasive gastric catheter, is feasible and therefore, to establish its potential as a practical future clinical monitoring tool for the critically ill. A septic shock model in pigs was developed, which reproduces the hemodynamic conditions of the critically ill patient.

[Influence of sex on immediate and late results of percutaneous coronary angioplasty].

Prior studies have reported worse results after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) in women than in men. However, recent data suggest that this difference is less marked. The aim of our study is to evaluate whether the procedural outcome is equal in the two genders.

[Asymptomatic cor triatriatum sinister in adulthood].

Cor triatrium sinister is a rare congenital disease (0,1% of cases of congenital heart disease). Cor triatrium is recognized by the finding of an abnormal fibromuscular membrane that subdivise the left atrium into posterosuperior and anteroinferor chambers. This anomaly creates an obstacle to the venous pulmonary flow.

Impedance spectroscopy for monitoring ischemic injury in the intestinal mucosa.

This work evaluates the feasibility of monitoring ischemic injury in the gastrointestinal mucosa by impedance spectroscopy, using a minimally invasive intestinal catheter. The disruption of the intestinal mucosa plays a key role in the evolution of shock and is the 'motor of multiple organ failure'. Different technologies have been developed to monitor mucosal perfusion, oxygenation and/or ischemia, but no practical method exists to assess tissue damage, which may be crucial for preventing multiple organ failure.