The Puerto Rico Cardiovascular Risk-Estimation Study (PRCaRES): an exploratory assessment of new patients in physicians' offices.

Objective: To determine the risk of developing coronary heart disease (CHD) in a cross-sectional sample of Puerto Rico residents through an analysis of the 10-year Framingham risk score.

Methods: An exploratory, retrospective, cross-sectional study of the medical records of patients 35 years or older who each visited the office of 1 of the 4 participating physicians on or after July 1, 2007.

Results: Data for 453 patients were extracted from the medical records, but 96 cases were excluded because of incomplete data or the patients' not fulfilling the inclusion criteria, thus yielding a total sample of 357 patients.

Chagas disease: an overview of clinical and epidemiological aspects.

Chagas disease, caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, is a serious health problem in Latin America and is an emerging disease in non-endemic countries. In recent decades, the epidemiological profile of the disease has changed due to new patterns of immigration and successful control in its transmission, leading to the urbanization and globalization of the disease. Dilated cardiomyopathy is the most important and severe manifestation of human chronic Chagas disease and is characterized by heart failure, ventricular arrhythmias, heart blocks, thromboembolic phenomena, and sudden death.

The production of articles on cardiology from Latin America in Medline indexed journals.

Introduction: Latin America has dramatically increased the number of articles Publisher from 1995 to 2002, but the individual contribution of each country appears to be very unequal.

Objectives: To analyze the production of articles on Cardiology research published in Latin American countries in the past years in international journals.

Methods: A bibliography search was carried out throughout PubMed in regards to biomedical articles in general and on Cardiology in particular, corresponding to the period 1987-2006.