108 results match your criteria: "Patras University School of Medicine[Affiliation]"
Hellenic J Cardiol
December 2021
Cardiology Dpt., Mitera Hospital, Hygeia Group, Athens, Greece.
Background: Patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) and coronary artery disease (CAD) represent a high-risk population, where comorbidities are common and the progression of coronary heart disease is relatively rapid and extensive. The present survey, conducted nationwide in a Eurozone country, Greece, with a properly organized national health system, aimed to record specific data from a significant number of patients with diabetes and documented stable CAD (SCAD).
Methods And Results: We conducted our survey across the country, in private and public primary, secondary, and tertiary care centers.
Purpose Of Review: The new pandemic of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has produced a global tumult and has overburdened national health systems. We herein discuss the cardiovascular implications and complications of this pandemic analyzing the most recent data clustered over the last several months.
Recent Findings: COVID-19 afflicts the cardiovascular system producing acute cardiac injury in 10-20% of cases with mild disease but in greater than 50-60% in severe cases, contributing to patients' demise.
Minerva Pediatr
October 2020
Department of Cardiology, Patras University School of Medicine, Patras, Greece.
Kounis Syndrome is defined as a hypersensitivity coronary disorder constituted by the association of an acute coronary syndrome with a hypersensitivity, allergic, anaphylactic or anaphylactoid reaction, in a pathophysiologic context involving mast-cells, platelets, eosinophils and various interacting inflammatory cells. Currently, Kounis Syndrome is established in the literature, as accompanied by a plethora of clinical case reports that further elucidate its aspects. To the best of our knowledge, a specific analysis regarding the pediatric data of Kounis Syndrome has never been performed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMed Res Rev
January 2021
First Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Diabetes Center, Medical School, AHEPA University Hospital, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Mitochondria provide energy to the cell during aerobic respiration by supplying ~95% of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules via oxidative phosphorylation. These organelles have various other functions, all carried out by numerous proteins, with the majority of them being encoded by nuclear DNA (nDNA). Mitochondria occupy ~1/3 of the volume of myocardial cells in adults, and function at levels of high-efficiency to promptly meet the energy requirements of the myocardial contractile units.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Cardiovasc Pharmacol Ther
January 2021
Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece.
Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) predisposes patients to arterial and venous thrombosis commonly complicating the clinical course of hospitalized patients and attributed to the inflammatory state, endothelial dysfunction, platelet activation and blood stasis. This viral coagulopathy may occur despite thromboprophylaxis and raises mortality; the risk appears highest among critically ill inpatients monitored in the intensive care unit. The prevalence of venous thromboembolism in COVID-19 patients has been reported to reach ∼10-35%, while autopsies raise it to nearly 60%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrends Cardiovasc Med
November 2020
Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece.
As the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic marches unrelentingly, more patients with cardiac arrhythmias are emerging due to the effects of the virus on the respiratory and cardiovascular (CV) systems and the systemic inflammation that it incurs, and also as a result of the proarrhythmic effects of COVID-19 pharmacotherapies and other drug interactions and the associated autonomic imbalance that enhance arrhythmogenicity. The most worrisome of all arrhythmogenic mechanisms is the QT prolonging effect of various anti-COVID pharmacotherapies that can lead to polymorphic ventricular tachycardia in the form of torsade des pointes and sudden cardiac death. It is therefore imperative to monitor the QT interval during treatment; however, conventional approaches to such monitoring increase the transmission risk for the staff and strain the health system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Cardiovasc Pharmacol
October 2020
Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has produced serious turmoil world-wide. Lung injury causing acute respiratory distress syndrome seems to be a most dreaded complication occurring in ∼30%. Older patients with cardiovascular comorbidities and acute respiratory distress syndrome have an increased mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Geriatr Cardiol
May 2020
Allergy Unit, Department of Pediatrics, Meyer Children's University Hospital, Florence, Italy.
Trends Cardiovasc Med
July 2021
Athens University School of Medicine, Athens, Greece. Electronic address:
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) with its two limbs, the sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS), plays a critical role in the modulation of cardiac arrhythmogenesis. It can be both pro- and/or anti-arrhythmic at both the atrial and ventricular level of the myocardium. Intricate mechanisms, different for specific cardiac arrhythmias, are involved in this modulatory process.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Cardiol
July 2020
Division of Cardiology, Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Decatur, GA, USA; Division of Cardiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Cardiac arrhythmias are the most common cardiac complication reported in pregnant women with and without structural heart disease (SHD); they are more frequent among women with SHD, such as cardiomyopathy and congenital heart disease (CHD). While older studies had indicated supraventricular tachycardia as the most common tachyarrhythmia in pregnancy, more recent data indicate an increase in the frequency of arrhythmias, with atrial fibrillation (AF) emerging as the most frequent arrhythmia in pregnancy, attributed to an increase in maternal age, cardiovascular risk factors and CHD in pregnancy. Importantly, the presence of any tachyarrhythmia during pregnancy may be associated with adverse maternal and fetal outcomes, including death.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAngiology
July 2020
First and Third Department of Cardiology, Athens University School of Medicine, Athens, Greece.
Growing evidence suggests that atrial fibrillation (AF), in addition to its thromboembolic risk, is a risk factor for cognitive impairment (CI) via several pathways and mechanisms, further contributing to morbidity/mortality. Prior stroke is a contributor to CI, but AF is also associated with CI independently from prior stroke. Silent brain infarctions, microemboli and microbleeds, brain atrophy, cerebral hypoperfusion from widely fluctuating ventricular rates, altered hemostatic function, vascular oxidative stress, and inflammation may all exacerbate CI, particularly in patients with persistent/permanent rather than paroxysmal AF and with increased duration/burden of the arrhythmia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSleep is essential to and an integral part of life and when lacking or disrupted, a multitude of mental and physical pathologies ensue, including cardiovascular (CV) disease, which increases health care costs. Several prospective studies and meta-analyses show that insomnia, short (<7h) or long (>9h) sleep and other sleep disorders are associated with an increased risk of hypertension, metabolic syndrome, myocardial infarction, heart failure, arrhythmias, CV disease risk and/or mortality. The mechanisms by which insomnia and other sleep disorders lead to increased CV risk may encompass inflammatory, immunological, neuro-autonomic, endocrinological, genetic and microbiome perturbations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Card Anaesth
March 2021
Department of Cardiology, Patras University School of Medicine, Patras, Greece.
Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia in western society affecting more than 35 million individuals worldwide annually. It is a common postoperative complication and may also occur spontaneously during general and local anesthesia administration. Aging, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and cardiovascular diseases including cardiomyopathies, congenital cardiac anomalies, heart failure, myocardial ischemia, pericarditis, previous cardiac surgery, vascular disease, and valvular heart disease are some correlated factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFVasc Health Risk Manag
January 2020
Athens University School of Medicine, Athens, Greece.
Spironolactone, an antagonist of aldosterone, initially used as a potassium-sparing diuretic, was subsequently shown to be a very effective adjunctive agent in the treatment of patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, by halting the disease progression, with significant beneficial effects on both morbidity and mortality. Other uses comprise resistant hypertension, edema in patients with cirrhosis, and other on- and off-label uses. Recent data indicate that spironolactone also may offer some symptomatic relief in patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHormones (Athens)
December 2019
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Patras University School of Medicine, 26504, Patras, Greece.
The original version of this article, published 21 October 2019, unfortunately contained a mistake. The presentation of Fig. 1 was incorrect.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Intern Med
February 2020
Third and First Department of Cardiology, Athens University School of Medicine, Ippokrateio Hospital, Vas. Sofias 114, Athens 115 27, Greece. Electronic address:
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are among the most widely prescribed agents, either for treatment or prophylaxis of gastrointestinal (GI) disease, that are often administered for prolonged or chronic use. Patients with cardiovascular (CV) disease frequently receive PPIs for prophylaxis against GI bleeding due to common use of antithrombotic drugs. Over the last several years there is a growing number of reports associating chronic PPI use with a variety of serious CV and non-CV adverse effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Sports Med Rep
November 2019
Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, GREECE.
Winter swimming is a stressful condition of whole-body exposure to cold water; however, winter swimmers have achieved variable degrees of adaptation to cold. The question arises whether this extreme sport activity has any health benefits or whether it may confer potentially harmful effects. As a form of aerobic exercise, albeit more strenuous when performed in cold water, winter swimming may increase body tolerance to stressors and achieve body hardening.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHormones (Athens)
December 2019
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Patras University School of Medicine, 26504, Patras, Greece.
Purpose: Previous studies have suggested that deletion of Foxo3a, FoxL2, PTEN, p27, and AMH leads to early exhaustion of the primordial follicle pool and premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) in transgenic mice. Our aim was to assess for the first time, to our knowledge, messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of these genes and AMHR2 in human ovarian tissue from women with POI. We hypothesized that these genes would be underexpressed in POI women compared with healthy controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrends Cardiovasc Med
August 2020
Patras University School of Medicine, Patras, Greece.
Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci
September 2019
Department of Ophthalmology, Patras University School of Medicine, Rion, Patras, Greece.
Purpose: To investigate foveal avascular zone (FAZ) changes in the superficial (SCP) and deep (DCP) capillary plexuses in beta-thalassemia major (BTM) patients, as shown in optical coherence tomography angiography.
Methods: Nonrandomized, comparative case series of 54 eyes of 27 BTM patients and 46 eyes of 23 healthy controls, utilizing an automated FAZ detection algorithm. Measurements included FAZ area and FAZ shape descriptors (convexity, circularity, and contour temperature).
J Phys Ther Sci
July 2019
Department of Physical Therapy, Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece: Psarron 6, Egio, Achaia 25100, Greece.
[Purpose] This study was aimed to investigate the effects of Ergon IASTM applications on the upper or lower part of the Superficial Back Line (SBL) on the hamstring's flexibility. [Participants and Methods] Sixty University students (age=24.4 ± 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEur J Intern Med
September 2019
Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece.
Cardiac amyloidosis or amyloid cardiomyopathy (ACM), commonly resulting from extracellular deposition of amyloid fibrils consisted of misfolded immunoglobulin light chain (AL) or transthyretin (TTR) protein, is an underestimated cause of heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias. Among the three types of cardiac amyloidosis (wild-type or familial TTR and light-chain), the wild-type (Wt) TTR-related amyloidosis (ATTR) is an increasingly recognized cause of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), and amyloidosis should be considered in the differential diagnosis of this heart failure group of patients. Recent advances in the diagnosis and drug treatment of ACM have ushered in a new era in early disease detection and better management of these patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndian Pacing Electrophysiol J
July 2019
Patras University School of Medicine, Patras, Greece.
Pulmonary vein (PV) isolation (PVI) remains cornerstone to ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF). For effective and durable PVI and thus fewer AF recurrences, lesion gaps in transmurality and contiguity responsible for PV reconnection (PVR) could only be addressed when one is cognizant of the potential location and sites where these lesion characteristics may be more prevalent and responsible for PVR. In the case of RF ablation, newer technologies incorporating contact force, time and power with automated monitoring of lesion formation, paying attention to difficult areas (carinae, left superior PV-LAA ridge, right inferior PV) and measuring inter-lesion distance may provide the tools to reduce PVR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTrends Cardiovasc Med
July 2020
Third Department of Cardiology, Athens University School of Medicine, Athens, Greece. Electronic address:
Congenital complete heart block (CCHB) occurs in 2-5% of pregnancies with positive anti-Ro/SSA and/or anti-La/SSB antibodies, and has a recurrence rate of 12-25% in a subsequent pregnancy. After trans-placental passage, these autoantibodies attack and destroy the atrioventricular (AV) node in susceptible fetuses with the highest-risk period observed between 16 and 28 weeks' gestational age. Many mothers are asymptomatic carriers, while <1/3 have a preexisting diagnosis of a rheumatic disease.
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