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Query: UMLS:C0018801 (heart failure)
 72,216 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

High blood pressure (BP) in the elderly must not be ignored as a normal consequence of aging. The criteria for the diagnosis of hypertension and the necessity to treat it are the same in elderly and younger patients. The aim of treatment of elderly hypertensive patients is to decrease BP safely and to reduce risk factors associated with cerebrovascular, cardiovascular and renal morbidity and mortality. The treatment of elderly hypertensive patients should be adjusted according to the needs of the individual, based upon age, race, severity of hypertension, co-existing medical problems, other cardiovascular risk factors, target-organ damage, risk-benefit considerations and costs. In addition to the elevated BP, other cardiovascular risk factors include smoking, glucose intolerance, hyperinsulinaemia, dyslipidaemia, hypercreatininaemia, peripheral vascular disease, left ventricular hypertrophy, and microalbuminuria (or albuminuria). Thus, the choice of initial antihypertensive therapy in elderly hypertensive patients should be based not only on the expected response, but also on the effects of therapy on lipid, potassium, glucose and uric acid levels, and left ventricular anatomy and function. Co-existing medical conditions (such as asthma, diabetes mellitus, heart failure, renal failure, gout, coronary artery disease, hyperlipidaemia and peripheral vascular disease) are major determinants for the selection of antihypertensive medications. With previous therapies (diuretics, beta-blockers, etc.), good BP control in the elderly was associated with clear and statistically significant reductions in stroke-related morbidity and mortality, but the overall effects on cardiovascular and renal complications of hypertension was either more variable or less obvious. Angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors are not only efficacious antihypertensive agents in the elderly, but also appear promising in counteracting some of the cardiovascular and renal consequences of hypertension. They are well tolerated and have a relatively low incidence of adverse effects. ACE inhibitors possess ancillary characteristics that are potentially beneficial for many elderly patients, including reduction of left ventricular mass, lack of metabolic and lipid disturbances, no adverse CNS effects, no risk of induction of heart failure, and a low risk of orthostatic hypotension. Since ACE inhibitors may improve perfusion to the heart, kidney and brain, they are well worth considering for the treatment of elderly patients with hypertensive target organ damage, especially in patients with heart failure, and diabetic patients with early nephropathy.
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PMID:ACE inhibitors. Differential use in elderly patients with hypertension. 857 91

Sympathetic nervous system activation has been documented in several cardiovascular disorders. In some, characterized by cardiac failure and portal hypertension accompanying hepatic cirrhosis, the sympathetic nervous stimulation is reflex and, to some extent, compensatory but has adverse consequences. For example, in cardiac failure, the sympathetic nerves of the heart are preferentially stimulated, providing adrenergic support to the failing myocardium but at the probable cost of arrhythmogenesis and progressive myocardial deterioration. The sympathetic activation present in patients with essential hypertension, which involves the sympathetic outflows to skeletal muscle, heart, and kidneys and is seen particularly in younger patients, differs from these examples in that the sympathetic nervous stimulation is apparently not reflex and the primary cause is unknown. There is, however, evidence that activation of forebrain pressor noradrenergic nuclei may be of importance as an underlying central nervous system mechanism. This sympathetic nervous stimulation in patients with essential hypertension, in addition to initiating the blood pressure elevation, may also contribute to the commonly associated metabolic abnormalities of insulin resistance and hyperlipidemia, with neural vasoconstriction having metabolic consequences, impairing glucose delivery and causing insulin resistance in muscle, and retarding postprandial clearing of lipids in liver. Trophic effects of sympathetic activation on cardiovascular growth are claimed but have yet to be demonstrated conclusively in humans.
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PMID:Sympathetic nervous system: contribution to human hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases. 864 1

Atherosclerosis and its consequences account for most of the morbidity and mortality in Western countries. It is a disease of the intima and primarily involves four cell types, i.e., endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells, monocytes and platelets. In recent years, knowledge on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of these cells and their alterations by cardiovascular risk factors and in atherosclerosis has greatly expanded. In particular, it has become clear that endothelial cells play a crucial role in the regulation of platelet function, coagulation, and vascular tone and structure. Interestingly, endothelial dysfunction occurs early, particularly if cardiovascular risk factors such as hyperlipidemia, hypertension and diabetes are present. This could lead to adhesion of circulating platelets and monocytes and increased accumulation of lipids in the intima, as well as increased contraction, migration and proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells. One of the enzymes with a key role in vascular homeostasis is angiotensin I converting enzyme (ACE). ACE is located on the endothelial cell membrane and is responsible for the conversion of angiotensin I into angiotensin II, as well as for the breakdown of bradykinin. While the antihypertensive effect of ACE inhibitors probably contributes to their antiatherogenic effects, other mechanisms are likely to be of greater importance. These direct antiatherogenic effects attributable to ACE inhibition are related to their vasculoprotective properties, including antiproliferative and antimitogenic activity, effects on endothelial function, protection against plaque rupture, antithrombotic effects, and possible antioxidant properties. There is overwhelming evidence to demonstrate the beneficial effects of long-term ACE inhibitor treatment in heart failure, acutely for suspected myocardial infarction (MI), and following MI in patients with left ventricular dysfunction. Hypercholesterolemia is a health risk, and epidemiological studies have shown a line between total cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiac events. Studies have shown that lowering the levels of total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol using HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors can result in a decrease in cardiac morbidity and mortality. Angiographic studies of coronary arteries have demonstrated a disparity between the decrease in cardiac events and the extent of regression of coronary artery lesions. Mechanisms other than the regression of coronary stenosis may therefore be important in the beneficial effect of cholesterol lowering. It may be of major importance that lipid-lowering therapy is associated with improved endothelial function and decreased platelet activity. Thus, both ACE inhibitors and HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors have vasculoprotective properties which may explain their beneficial effects on cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
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PMID:[Pharmacotherapy of arteriosclerosis and its complications. Effect of ACE inhibitors and HMG-CoA-reductase inhibitors]. 919 90

Cardiac disease is common and is the major killer in end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Cardiac failure is a highly malignant condition in ESRD patients. Cardiac failure mediates most of the adverse prognostic impact of ischemic heart disease. Left ventricular (LV) abnormalities are already present at initiation of dialysis therapy in approximately 80% of patients. These abnormalities (ie, systolic dysfunction in approximately 15%, LV dilatation with preserved systolic function in 30%, concentric LV hypertrophy [LVH] in 40%) independently predict ischemic heart disease and cardiac failure, and are the largest baseline predictor of mortality after 2 years on dialysis therapy. The associations between classical risk factors (eg, hyperlipidemia, smoking, hypertension) and cardiac outcomes in ESRD are inconsistent. "Uremic" risk factors represent a nascent, but potentially important field. In our prospective 10-year study of 433 patients starting renal replacement therapy, we identified the following as major independent risk factors for cardiac disease: (1) hypertension (concentric LVH, LV dilatation, ischemic heart disease, cardiac failure, inverse relationship with mortality); (2) anemia (LV dilatation, cardiac failure, death); and (3) hypoalbuminemia (ischemic heart disease, cardiac failure, death). Transplantation dramatically improved LV abnormalities, suggesting that a uremic environment is cardiotoxic. Multiple risk factors act in concert to produce cardiac disease in ESRD; many of these are avoidable, suggesting that the enormous burden of disease can be reduced considerably.
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PMID:Cardiac disease in chronic uremia: clinical outcome and risk factors. 923 28

Obesity is associated with the development of some of the most prevalent diseases of modern society. The greatest risk is for diabetes mellitus where a body mass index above 35 kg/m2 increases the risk by 93-fold in women and by 42-fold in men. The risk of coronary heart disease is increased 86% by a 20% rise in weight in males, whereas in obese women the risk is increased 3.6-fold. Elevation of blood pressure, hyperlipidaemia and altered haemostatic factors are implicated in this high risk from coronary heart disease. Gallbladder disease is increased 2.7-fold with an enhanced cancer risk especially for colorectal cancer in males and cancer of the endometrium and biliary passages in females. Endocrine changes are associated with metabolic diseases and infertility, and respiratory problems result in sleep apnoea, hypoventilation, arrhythmias and eventual cardiac failure. Obesity is not a social stigma but an actual disease with a major genetic component to its aetiology and a financial cost estimated at $69 billion for the USA alone.
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PMID:Obesity as a disease. 924 38

Cardiac transplantation has become an accepted treatment for selected patients with end-stage heart failure. Despite a successful transplant, denervated transplanted hearts respond differently to cardiac drugs than nontransplanted hearts. The treatments for bradycardia, tachycardia, and hypotension are different than for nontransplanted hearts. Despite the improvement in long-term survival, a number of complications may occur posttransplantation. These complications include, allograft rejection, infection, allograft coronary artery disease, and malignancy. Additionally, posttransplant patients may have complications from the immunosuppressive agents cyclosporine, prednisione, and azathioprine. Such complications include drug interactions with commonly prescribed medications, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, osteoporosis, and gastrointestinal complications. The purpose of this article is to discuss the management of the cardiac transplant recipient as it relates to the aforementioned complications. Management of the cardiac transplantation patient by the primary care physician will also be discussed, including indications for consultation by the primary care physician with the transplant center.
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PMID:Management of the cardiac transplant recipient: roles of the transplant cardiologist and primary care physician. 929 43

A nine-year old girl with T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) had acute severe neurologic complications at the end of the remission-induction chemotherapy course. Thirty-six hours following triple intrathecal (IT) therapy and intravenous (IV) administration of L-asparaginase (L-asp), tetraplegia developed and she became unconscious. She had bouts of hypertension and persistent tachycardia unresponsive to digitalis therapy. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed multiple brain white matter hyperintensities and filling defects in the saggital sinus, suggesting thrombosis. Over the 40 days, in addition to her neurologic compromise she also had transient diabetes mellitus, severe hyperlipidemia, hypoproteinemia and edema, liver and heart failure and staphylococcus aureus sepsis with prolonged bone marrow depression. Despite, coexistence of all these chemotherapy related complications, her neurologic functions and multiple organ failure improved gradually. After a 70 days' period of interruption, chemotherapy was resumed and continued without any further complications. Although, the etiology of her extensive sensitivity to some drugs remains unclear, we believe that it is important to document these unusual events in this child.
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PMID:Coexistence of life threatening chemotherapy related leukoencephalopathy, saggital sinus thrombosis and multiple organ failure in a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: an unusual case with clinical recovery. 932 1

At present, there is growing evidence implicating GH and/or IGF-I in the intricate cascade of events connected with the regulation of heart development and hypertrophy. Moreover, GH excess and/or deficiency have been shown to include in their advanced clinical manifestations almost always an impaired cardiac function, which may reduce life expectancy. This finding is related both to a primitive impairment of heart structure and function and to metabolic changes such as hyperlipidemia, increase of body fat and premature atherosclerosis. Patients with childhood or adulthood-onset GH deficiency have a reduced left ventricular mass and ejection fraction and the indexes of left ventricular systolic function remain markedly depressed during exercise. Conversely, in acromegaly the cardiac enlargement, which is disproportionate to the increase in size of other internal body organs, has been a rather uniform finding. The severity of the acromegalic cardiomyopathy was reported to be correlated better with the disease duration than with circulating GH and/or IGF-I levels. Myocardial hypertrophy with interstitial fibrosis, lymphomononuclear infiltration and areas of monocyte necrosis often results in concentric hypertrophy of both ventricles. The treatment of GH deficiency and excess improved cardiac function. Interestingly, based on the evidence that GH increases cardiac mass, recombinant GH was administered to patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. It increased the myocardial mass and reduced the size of the left ventricular chamber, resulting in improvement of hemodynamics, myocardial energy metabolism and clinical status. These promising results open new perspectives for the use of GH in heart failure.
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PMID:Is growth hormone bad for your heart? Cardiovascular impact of GH deficiency and of acromegaly. 938 93

Diuretics have again been recommended by the Sixth Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC VI) as one of the first-choice medications in the management of hypertension. This recommendation is based on the results of numerous randomized, diuretic-based, long-term controlled clinical trials that have demonstrated a reduction in both cerebrovascular and cardiovascular morbidity. Despite this and other national recommendations, the use of diuretics has steadily decreased over the past 15 years. Reasons include heavy promotion of other medications and the perception that diuretics produce adverse metabolic effects and do not reduce coronary heart disease events. Data, however, indicate that (1) changes in glucose and cholesterol metabolism are minor, especially with the smaller doses now being used; (2) cardiovascular morbidity and mortality have been reduced in hypertensive patients, even in those with hyperlipidemia or diabetes, when diuretics are used; and (3) concerns about hypokalemia-induced arrhythmias have been overstated. While special indications exist for other medications in the treatment of hypertension, for example, use of an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (usually in addition to a diuretic) for a patient with heart failure or diabetic nephropathy, most patients, including those with hyperlipidemia or glucose intolerance, can be effectively treated with a diuretic as initial therapy or as part of a combination regimen. Diuretics should be used more not less frequently; use of diuretics would reduce the number of resistant hypertensive patients.
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PMID:Why are physicians not prescribing diuretics more frequently in the management of hypertension? 1045 Jul 8

The indices of cardiac performances were compared between 31 continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and 20 long-term hemodialysis (HD) patients. They were subdivided into three groups according to dialysis duration: L-CAPD (n = 16, mean age and CAPD duration were, respectively, 53 +/- 8 [SD] years and 77 +/- 13 months); S-CAPD (n = 15; 52 +/- 12 years, 28 +/- 12 months); HD (n = 20; 51 +/- 10 years, 162 +/- 52 months). The diabetic HD patients (DM-HD; n = 13; 60 +/- 13 years of age, 22 +/- 11 months) were chosen separately. Thirteen normotensive subjects with normal kidney function (mean age, 57 +/- 9 years) were selected as an age-matched control group. There were no significant differences between groups in age, gender, incidence of original kidney disease, or serum biochemical data. The blood pressure and the cardiothoracic ratio in L-CAPD were highest among groups. The indices of left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy as well as LV performance by means of echocardiography or pulsed Doppler were compared. Among nondiabetic dialysis patients, the calculated LV mass index (LVMI) of 166.4 +/- 84.3 g/m2 and the ratio of the peak atrial filling velocity to the peak diastolic flow velocity of 1.25 +/- 0.4 in L-CAPD were greatest, and the left ventricular fractional shortening (%FS) of 34.2 +/- 10.8% in L-CAPD was smallest. LVMI or %FS of L-CAPD was the same as DM-HD of 161.0 +/- 40.7 g/m2 or 31.6 +/- 8.2%. Possibly, poor control of hypervolemia, which is caused by peritoneal problems induced by either peritonitis or chronic exposure to high-glucose dialysate, causes a substantial cardiac preload leading to incipient cardiac failure in L-CAPD. According to the similar results of L-CAPD and DM-HD, it may be that hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or long-term constant glucose loading of CAPD fluids in addition to impaired glucose tolerance by chronic renal failure is more or less related to the progression of LV hypertrophy and latent cardiac dysfunction in long-term CAPD patients. In this context, CAPD of more than 5 years' duration is disadvantageous for preserving cardiac function as compared with HD.
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PMID:Disadvantage of long-term CAPD for preserving cardiac performance: an echocardiographic study. 974 Jan 66


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