Therapeutic Efficacy of Autologous Non-Mobilized Enriched Circulating Endothelial Progenitors in Patients With Critical Limb Ischemia - The SCELTA Trial.

Background: The therapeutic efficacy of bone marrow mononuclear cells (BM-MNC) autotransplantation in critical limb ischemia (CLI) has been reported. Variable proportions of circulating monocytes express low levels of CD34 (CD14CD34cells) and behave in vitro as endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs). The aim of the present randomized clinical trial was to compare the safety and therapeutic effects of enriched circulating EPCs (ECEPCs) with BM-MNC administration.

Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment, and Control of Hypertension among Chinese First-Generation Migrants and Italians in Prato, Italy: The CHIP Study.

Data on health needs of Chinese living in the South of Europe are lacking. To compare prevalence, awareness, treatment, control, and risk factors for hypertension between Chinese migrants and Italian adults, a sample of 1200 first-generation Chinese migrants and 291 native Italians aged 35-59 years living in Prato (Italy) was recruited in a community-based participatory cross-sectional survey. Primary outcome measure was hypertension, diagnosed for blood pressure values ≥ 140/90 mmHg or current use of antihypertensive medications.

Assessment, Definition, and Classification of Lower Limb Ulcers in Systemic Sclerosis: A Challenge for the Rheumatologist.

Objective: To evaluate pathogenesis and clinical features of lower limb ulcers in systemic sclerosis (SSc) and to propose a classification that could be used in clinical practice.

Methods: Charts of 60 patients with SSc who had lower limb cutaneous lesions were reviewed. All patients had videocapillaroscopy and arterial and venous lower limb color Doppler ultrasonography (US).

Trandolapril, but not verapamil nor their association, restores the physiological renal hemodynamic response to adrenergic activation in essential hypertension.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of antihypertensive drugs on renal hemodynamics in hypertensive patients during an adrenergic activation by mental stress (MS), which induces renal vasoconstriction in healthy subjects. Renal hemodynamics was assessed twice in 30 middle-aged essential hypertensive patients (57±6 years)-after 15 days of pharmacological wash-out and after 15 days of treatment with Trandolapril (T, 4 mg, n=10), Verapamil (V, 240 mg, n=10), or both (T 2 mg+V 180 mg, n=10). Each experiment consisted of 4 30-min periods (baseline, MS, recovery I and II).

Markers of systemic inflammation in periodontal patients: chronic versus aggressive periodontitis. An explorative cross-sectional study.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in the inflammatory profile of young (
Methods: Systemically healthy subjects affected by severe CP or AP were enrolled in this study. Differential diagnosis was performed according to the criteria suggested by the American Academy of Periodontology.

Periodontal variables may predict sub-clinical atherosclerosis and systemic inflammation in young adults. A cross-sectional study.

Aim: The aim of the present explorative cross-sectional study was to evaluate the potential role of some periodontal variables in predicting sub-clinical atherosclerosis and systemic inflammation in young adults (
Materials And Methods: A total of 90 systemically healthy subjects, 45 (mean age 36.35+/-3.

Carotid intima media thickness and plaques can predict the occurrence of ischemic cerebrovascular events.

Background And Purpose: The clinical usefulness of noninvasive measurement of carotid intima media thickness and plaque visualization in the general population is still uncertain.

Methods: We evaluated the age-specific incidence rates of cerebrovascular events in a cohort of 1348 subjects randomly taken from the census list of San Daniele Township and followed for a mean period of 12.7 years.

Severe periodontitis in young adults is associated with sub-clinical atherosclerosis.

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between severe periodontitis and sub-clinical atherosclerosis in young (< or =40 years) systemically healthy individuals.

Material And Methods: Ninety systemically healthy subjects, 45 affected by severe periodontitis (mean age 36.35+/-3.

Flow-mediated vasodilation and carotid intima-media thickness in systemic sclerosis.

Increased evidence suggests an accelerated macrovascular disease in systemic sclerosis (SSc). Brachial artery flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) and carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) are two indicators of subclinic cardiovascular disease and are frequently used as surrogate measures of subclinic atherosclerosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate macrovascular involvement in SSc.

Abnormal pressure passive dilatation of cerebral arterioles in the elderly with isolated systolic hypertension.

The aim of this study was to investigate the cerebrovascular adaptability to 2 sequential pressor stimuli in elderly patients with isolated systolic hypertension. Ten healthy elderly normotensive subjects (68 to 82 years), 10 elderly subjects with isolated systolic hypertension (63 to 82 years), and 10 young normotensive subjects (24 to 40 years) took part in the study. A pressor reaction, using sequential cold pressor and handgrip stimulation, was induced.

Ethanol dilates coronary arteries and increases coronary flow via transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 and calcitonin gene-related peptide.

Objectives: Consumption of alcoholic beverages reduces the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), and epidemiological studies have shown that ethanol per se is protective. However, the mechanism by which ethanol exerts protection is not fully known. Ethanol can stimulate neuropeptide-containing primary sensory neurons via the activation of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1).

Thromboxane inhibition improves renal perfusion and excretory function in severe congestive heart failure.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether thromboxane inhibition can favorably affect renal perfusion and clinical conditions in patients affected by severe heart failure.

Background: The renal formation of the vasoconstrictor thromboxane A(2) (TxA(2)) is increased during cardiac failure.

Methods: By oral administration of picotamide (a renal TxA(2) synthase and TxA(2)/prostaglandin H(2) receptor inhibitor), we blocked renal TxA(2).

Vitamin supplementation reduces the progression of atherosclerosis in hyperhomocysteinemic renal-transplant recipients.

Background: We previously demonstrated among renal-transplant recipients (RTRs) a high prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia, which might account for their elevated cardiovascular risk. The purpose of our study was to document, in hyperhomocysteinemic RTRs, the effect of vitamin supplementation on carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), which is an early sign of atherosclerosis.

Methods: A total of 56 stable hyperhomocysteinemic RTRs were randomly assigned to vitamin supplementation (folic acid 5 mg/day; vitamin B(6) 50 mg/day; vitamin B(12) 400 microg) (group A) or placebo treatment (group B) for 6 months.

Pain in mitral valve prolapse.

Thirty subjects with mitral valve prolapse were carefully observed, in order to investigate whether chest pain, characteristic of angina pectoris, was present. No cases of angina pectoris or of heart pain were observed. A characteristic which did emerge was that 86% of the subjects suffered a typical myofascial pain of the muscles of the chest.