[The APULIA HF multicenter study: efficacy of a management protocol shared between hospital and territorial health services for acute decompensated heart failure patients].

Background: The aim of this study was to demonstrate the efficacy of a management model to reduce hospitalizations in patients recently admitted for acute decompensated heart failure.

Methods: The management model was based on a close integration between hospital and territory health services. Clinical evaluation, ECG, echocardiographic findings, total body bioimpedance and brain natriuretic peptide serum levels were used to assess clinical stability of patients at discharge and during follow-up.

Usual versus tight control of systolic blood pressure in non-diabetic patients with hypertension (Cardio-Sis): an open-label randomised trial.

Background: The level to which systolic blood pressure should be controlled in hypertensive patients without diabetes remains unknown. We tested the hypothesis that tight control compared with usual control of systolic blood pressure would be beneficial in such patients.

Methods: In this randomised open-label trial undertaken in 44 centres in Italy, 1111 non-diabetic patients with systolic blood pressure 150 mm Hg or greater were randomly assigned to a target systolic blood pressure of less than 140 mm Hg (usual control; n=553) or less than 130 mm Hg (tight control; n=558).

Prognostic value of serial electrocardiographic voltage and repolarization changes in essential hypertension: the HEART Survey study.

Background: The interpretation of serial electrocardiographic (ECG) changes in hypertensive subjects is uncertain. We tested the hypothesis that serial changes in repolarization and voltage are independent determinants of outcome.

Methods: The Hypertrophy at ECG And its Regression during Treatment (HEART) Survey was a prospective observational study performed at 61 centers.

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring early after acute myocardial infarction: development of a new prognostic index.

Objectives: The aim of our study was to assess the possible role of a prognostic index based on ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in a large cohort of patients with recent myocardial infarction.

Methods: The study population included 1335 consecutive patients admitted for ST elevation myocardial infarction and discharged alive from 48 Italian hospitals participating in the multicentric IMPRESSIVE (Infarto Miocardico, Pressione arteriosa e frequenza cardiaca. Studio Italiano di Valutazione Epidemiologica) study.

Regression of left ventricular hypertrophy and prevention of stroke in hypertensive subjects.

Background: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a risk marker for stroke and its regression confers protection from stroke. The relationship between serial LVH changes and risk of stroke has never been investigated in a mixed population of hypertensive subjects with and without LVH.

Methods: In this study, 880 initially untreated hypertensive subjects (mean age 48 years, office blood pressure (BP) 155/98 mm Hg; 24-h BP 137/87 mm Hg) underwent tests including echocardiography and 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring at entry and after a median of 3.

Plant uncoupling protein in mitochondria from aged-dehydrated slices of Jerusalem artichoke tubers becomes sensitive to superoxide and to hydrogen peroxide without increase in protein level.

We investigated the occurrence of the plant Uncoupling Protein (UCP) in mitochondria isolated from both fresh (f-JAM) and aged-dehydrated (a-d-JAM) slices of Jerusalem artichoke tubers (Helianthus tuberosus L.). The presence of UCP was shown by immunological analysis and its function was investigated by measuring the decrease of the mitochondrial membrane potential due to linoleic acid (LA) and its inhibition by purine nucleotides under conditions in which the adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT) was inhibited by atractyloside (Atr).

[Distribution of the global cardiovascular risk in the Italian population: results from the cardiovascular epidemiologic observatory].

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the 10-year cardiovascular risk categories using risk chart, recently set up by the National Institute of Health in the population examined by the Cardiovascular Epidemiologic Observatory.

Methods: 3745 men and 3664 women aged 40-69 years were classified into five risk categories (< 5 %; 5-10%; 10-15%; 15-20%; > or = 20%) taking into account age, smoking habit, history of diabetes, systolic blood pressure, serum cholesterol and excluding those already under treatment for hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia or experienced a previous major cardiovascular event (1937 persons: 955 men, 982 women).

Results: Proportion of people estimated at risk in 10 years > or = 20% is minimal in the youngest age range, increases in adulthood, duplicates in smokers and is higher in diabetics.

[Diabetes in Italy: a public health problem].

Background: Type 2 diabetes is the most frequent form of diabetes in the adult population and is associated with an increasing risk of cardiovascular diseases. The objective of this study was to describe the prevalence and the state of control in an Italian population sample examined within the Osservatorio Epidemiologico Cardiovascolare study.

Methods: The sample of this study consisted in 8972 subjects, men and women aged 35-74 years.

Isolated durum wheat and potato cell mitochondria oxidize externally added NADH mostly via the malate/oxaloacetate shuttle with a rate that depends on the carrier-mediated transport.

We investigated whether and how mitochondria from durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) and potato (Solanum tuberosum), isolated from etiolated shoots and a cell suspension culture, respectively, oxidize externally added NADH via the mitochondrial shuttles; in particular, we compared the shuttles and the external NADH dehydrogenase (NADH DHExt) with respect to their capacity to oxidize external NADH. We found that external NADH and NADPH can be oxidized via two separate DHExt, whereas under conditions in which the activities of NAD(P)H DHExt are largely prevented, NADH (but not NADPH) is oxidized in the presence of external malate (MAL) and MAL dehydrogenase, in a manner sensitive to several non-penetrant compounds according to the occurrence of the MAL/oxaloacetate (OAA) shuttle.

Hypertrophy at ECG and its regression during treatment survey (HEART survey). Rationale, design and baseline characteristics of patients.

Background: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) detected at electrocardiography (ECG) is a predictor of an increased cardiovascular risk in essential hypertension. However, uncertainty remains concerning the reproducibility of ECG LVH and the prognostic relevance of its regression over time in hypertension. The aim of this study was to determine the prognostic value of baseline ECG LVH and its serial changes in a large cohort of hypertensive patients.

Prognosis of inappropriate left ventricular mass in hypertension: the MAVI Study.

To evaluate the prognostic impact of left ventricular (LV) mass exceeding individual needs to compensate hemodynamic load, the percentage of excess of echocardiographic LV mass in relation to individual ideal value predicted by gender, stroke work, and height (in meter(2.7)) from a reference population was assessed in 1019 white hypertensives (627 women [24% obese] and 392 men [17% obese, P<0.02 versus women]) without prevalent cardiovascular disease or type 1 diabetes, from the Italian multicenter, prospective study MAVI.

Risk of cardiovascular disease in relation to achieved office and ambulatory blood pressure control in treated hypertensive subjects.

Objective: We investigated the prognostic impact of 24-h blood pressure control in treated hypertensive subjects.

Background: There is growing evidence that ambulatory blood pressure improves risk stratification in untreated subjects with essential hypertension. Surprisingly, little is known on the prognostic value of this procedure in treated subjects.