Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0018799 (heart disease)
 34,133 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In the recent years an increasing attention has been focused on the systolic time intervals (STI) as reliable indicators of left ventircular contractile performance. As regards the diagnostic usefulness of STI in old persons only few papers can be found in the literature, all of them being concerned with subjects aged less than 90 years. With the aim to assess the usefulness and the reliability of the method and the caracteristics of left ventricular function in the tenth decade, STI as well as heart volume (HV) were determined on a group of 35 subjects aged 90 years and over (mean age 93.2 years) normotensive and free from clinical evidence of heart disease. STI (PEPI, LVETI, QS2I, PEP/LVET) values showed no differences with those considered as normal. A marked increase was recorded for the HV values. These results suggest that in the very advanced age a good level of left ventricular contractile performance can be mantained by the compensatory mechanism represented by heart dilation according to the Frank Starling principle.
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PMID:[Polycardiographic researches on over 90 years old subjects (author's transl)]. 75 76

Left ventricular function of a sample of subjects with chronic alcohol intake, in the form of wine, and without clinical or electrocardiographic signs of heart disease was compared with that of a sample of normal control subjects using non-invasive polygraphic recordings. The statistical analysis has shown significant prolongation of PEP, PEPI, an increase in PEP/LVET, and a shortening of LVET and LVETI in the alcoholic subjects compared with the controls. All these abnormalities may be ascribed to left ventricular malfunction.
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PMID:Preclinical abnormaltiy of left ventricular function in chronic alcoholics. 83 35

PEPI (pre-ejection period index), QS2I (total electromechanical systolic index), LVETI (left ventricular ejection time index), and PEP/LVET ratio were measured in 35 thyrotoxic patients. None of the patients had clinical evidence of heart disease nor received drugs which might have affected the systolic time intervals. the hyperthyroid subjects showed significant shortening of PEPI and significant reduction of PEP/LVET, which returned within normal limits when the patients became euthyroid during treatment. No correlation could be found between T3, T4, FTI and PEPI or PEP/LVET. However, serial measurements indicated that the fall toward the normal range of PEPI parallelled that of T3; the latter is considered the most important index of thyroid function. Our study suggests that PEPI and PEP/LVET ratio may be of great usefulness in detecting hemodynamic alterations in subjects with uncomplicated hyperthyroidism. Moreover, these methods may facilitate the diagnosis in unusual types of hyperthyroidism occurring in the absence of clinical signs of toxicosis. In addition, PEPI and PEP/LVET appear to be useful in detecting T3 toxicosis. Finally, serial controls of PEPI could represent a useful index to monitor the response to therapy.
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PMID:Systolic time intervals in hyperthyroidism. 731 57

Progesterone receptors are present in the arterial wall and it is, therefore, likely that the arterial effects of progestins are mediated through progesterone receptors as well as through down-regulation of the estradiol receptor. Progestin therapy affects arterial function, as it can stabilize arteries in a state of vasomotor instability, but may also induce vasoconstriction of estrogenized vessels. Thus, the cardiovascular effects of progestins may influence the cardioprotective effect of estrogens. There has been some concern that a combined estrogen-progestogen therapy may attenuate some of estrogen's beneficial effects on cardiovascular health. This is a reflection of the past epidemiologic studies which have used primarily unopposed estrogen. The PEPI trial is the only large-scale, long-term study to compare directly the effects of different combined hormone replacement therapy regimens upon plasma lipids in healthy women. This study has shown that the adjunctive clinical impact of different progestogens on the beneficial effect of estrogen replacement therapy is trivial. It has never been proved that in normocholesterolemic women, e.g., those included in the PEPI trial, the increase in HDL reduces cardiovascular mortality or morbidity. Based on the results of PEPI, hormone replacement therapy has positive effects on key heart disease risk factors and endometrial tissue, and the magnitude of those effects does not differ significantly across the hormone replacement therapy regimens used. At present there are only few and inconclusive data available on the vascular effect of progestins in menopausal women. Some studies found that progestins reduced the beneficial effect of estrogens, while others did not. Our group has recently shown that different estrogen-progestin treatments have different effects upon vascular reactivity and that a careful selection of the progestin to be added to estrogen is of capital importance to preserve, or even enhance the positive vascular effects of estrogens. Few epidemiological studies have investigated the effect of adding a progestin to estrogen therapy upon cardiovascular mortality and morbidity, and all have suggested that hormone replacement therapy may be more effective than estrogen replacement alone in reducing cardiovascular events in primary prevention. The results of the recently published Heart and Estrogen/progestin Replacement Study (HERS) have added some critical data on the effect of hormone replacement therapy for secondary prevention in women with coronary artery disease. The study, however, is affected by several important methodological and statistical problems, which make its interpretation difficult and its conclusions useless for clinical practice. The results of the study should be evaluated with caution by physicians who give advice on hormone replacement therapy, and no woman should be taken off hormone replacement therapy because of HERS. Of importance, the results of HERS should not be used to suggest alternative forms of treatment, especially the selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), for cardiovascular protection in postmenopausal women.
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PMID:Comparative cardiovascular effects of different progestins in menopause. 1172 Jan 97