Standards for the uniform reporting of hypertension in adults using population survey data: recommendations from the World Hypertension League Expert Committee.

Surveillance and monitoring of cardiovascular risk factors including raised blood pressure are critical to informing efforts to prevent and control cardiovascular disease. Yet, many countries lack the capacity for adequate national surveillance. Furthermore, hypertension indicators are often reported in different ways, which hampers the ability to compare and assess progress.

A cross-national comparative study of blood pressure levels and hypertension prevalence in Canada and Hungary.

Purpose: Hungary has one of the highest cardiovascular (CV) mortality and stroke rates compared to other countries in Europe and North America. Data from two recent blood pressure (BP) screening projects in Hungary and Canada provided us with the opportunity to compare potential differences in the prevalence of hypertension between these countries.

Methods: From the Ontario Blood Pressure Survey, 880 white Canadians between 20 and 62 years old with white-collar occupation were selected and compared with a total of 1000 Hungarian bank employees in the same age range.

High prevalence of prehypertension and hypertension in a working population in Hungary.

Background: Hungary has one of the highest mortality rates due to strokes among the European Union countries. As elevated blood pressure (BP) is the principal risk factor for strokes, we assessed BP levels, as well as awareness and treatment status of hypertension and prehypertension in a working population sample in Hungary.

Methods: Worksite employees in Budapest and Szeged were screened for their BP using an automated BP measuring instrument (BpTRU).

Rosuvastatin and cardiovascular events in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

Background: Statins reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events in patients at high cardiovascular risk. However, a benefit of statins in such patients who are undergoing hemodialysis has not been proved.

Methods: We conducted an international, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, prospective trial involving 2776 patients, 50 to 80 years of age, who were undergoing maintenance hemodialysis.

Neurovascular pulsatile compression and neurosurgical decompression of the rostral ventrolateral medulla in medically resistant hypertensive patients.

Background/aims: In cases of severe primary hypertension not responding to conventional medical therapy, neurovascular pulsatile compression of the rostral ventrolateral medulla on the left side may be considered as an etiological factor in the hypertension. Through neurosurgical decompression, the blood pressure can be reduced in these cases, and the conventional medication can also become more effective.

Methods: The authors retrospectively analysed the changes in the blood pressure and therapy of patients with or without neurosurgical decompression over a 2-year period.

Is interview a reliable method to verify the compliance with antihypertensive therapy? An international central-European study.

Background: Non-compliance with prescribed antihypertensive medication is an important contributor to the failure of antihypertensive therapy.

Objective: To assess the validity of a short questionnaire in the identification of non-compliant patients.

Methods: In three central-European countries, work-site screening for hypertension was conducted.

[The incidence of renal diseases as diagnosed by biopsy in Hungary].

Aim And Methods: The authors analysed the incidence of renal diseases as diagnosed by biopsy in the population living on the southern Great Hungarian Plain. 798 biopsy specimens were examined between 1990 and 2002.

Results: The most common diseases in decreasing order of frequency were IgA nephropathy (15%), membranous nephropathy (12%), thin-basement-membrane nephropathy (8%), minimal change nephropathy (7%), lupus glomerulonephritis (7%), focal sclerosis (6%), hypertensive kidney disease and arteriolosclerosis (5%), diabetic nephropathy (5%), and crescentic glomerulonephritis (4%).

The changing epidemiology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in haemodialysis: European multicentre study.

Background: The high prevalence of anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibodies in HD patients has been known since the early 1990s but its evolution over the last decade is poorly documented.

Methods: All chronic HD patients from 15 Belgian units were tested at (re)start of HD and every 18 months for anti-HCV antibodies (ELISA 2 in May 1991 and November 1992, then ELISA 3 until May 2000). All chronic HD patients from HD units from eight other European countries, whose prevalence of anti-HCV (+) patients had been studied in 1991-1994 (and published except in one country), were tested for anti-HCV antibodies in 1999.

Treatment of diabetic nephropathy with angiotensin II blockers.

The increased activity of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) is an important pathogenetic factor in the development of nephropathy in diabetic patients. The damaging factor of this system is the end-product, angiotensin II, and the damaging effects are vasoconstriction, increase of aldosterone secretion, growth, fibrosis, thrombosis, inflammation and oxidation. Theoretically, on this basis, blockade of the RAAS should have a beneficial effect on the development of diabetic nephropathy.

Vasoactive effects of erythropoietin on human placental blood vessels in vitro.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the direct effect of erythropoietin on human placental vessels.

Study Design: Placental vessel rings (n = 8 for each group) from uncomplicated pregnancies were exposed to recombinant human erythropoietin (10-300 IU/mL) in an isometric myograph. One-way analysis of variance with the Bonferroni posttest was used to evaluate significant levels of differences.

L-carnitine ameliorates gentamicin-induced renal injury in rats.

Background: This study examined whether administration of L-carnitine ameliorates gentamicin-induced renal injury in rats.

Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to one of seven treatment groups: group A (control) rats were given normal saline injections daily for 8 consecutive days; group B, C and D rats were given gentamicin injections, 50 mg/kg body weight/day daily for 8 consecutive days; and group E, F and G rats were given gentamicin injections, 80 mg/kg/day daily for 8 consecutive days. Starting 4 days before these injections, all groups were given additional injections, for 12 consecutive days, of normal saline (groups A, B and E) or L-carnitine at 40 mg/kg (groups C and F) or 200 mg/kg (groups D and G).