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

Non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is increasing in incidence as the population in most countries ages. Multiple pathology is common in the elderly, and cardiovascular disease is usually present at diagnosis. Patients who develop NIDDM at age 65 years may live long enough to develop microvascular complications. Others who are frail and have multiple pathologies may require treatment to prevent both symptomatic hyperglycaemia and dehydration, whilst avoiding hypoglycaemia. The goals in the management of NIDDM in elderly people are the prevention of complications and the relief of symptoms. Treatment must be tailored to the individual's expectations and should be reviewed regularly with the changing circumstances of aging. If dietary measures fail to control glucose levels, antihyperglycaemic sulphonylureas are the most frequently prescribed form of treatment. However, concern over the potential of these drugs to cause hypoglycaemia limits the choice to second generation sulphonylureas, agents that preserve the first phase of insulin release and have non-biologically active metabolites that are promptly eliminated. The biguanide agent metformin is also appropriate in elderly obese patients with NIDDM who do not have renal, liver or cardiac failure. The combination of a sulphonylurea and metformin can be effective in patients in whom insulin would otherwise be required. Novel compounds such as acarbose and the thiazolinediones may also be useful in the treatment of older diabetic patients.
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PMID:Oral antihyperglycaemics. Considerations in older patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. 914 53

Programmed cell death plays critical roles in a wide variety of physiological processes during fetal development and in adult tissues. In most cases, physiological cell death occurs by apoptosis as opposed to necrosis. Defects in apoptotic cell death regulation contribute to many diseases, including disorders where cell accumulation occurs (cancer, restenosis) or where cell loss ensues (stroke, heart failure, neurodegeneration, AIDS). In recent years, the molecular machinery responsible for apoptosis has been elucidated, revealing a family of intracellular proteases, the caspases, which are responsible directly or indirectly for the morphological and biochemical changes that characterize the phenomenon of apoptosis. Diverse regulators of the caspases have also been discovered, including activators and inhibitors of these cell death proteases. Inputs from signal transduction pathways into the core of the cell death machinery have also been identified, demonstrating ways of linking environmental stimuli to cell death responses or cell survival maintenance. Knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis is providing insights into the causes of multiple pathologies where aberrant cell death regulation occurs and is beginning to provide new approaches to the treatment of human diseases.
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PMID:Mechanisms of apoptosis. 1107 1

Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) is common in connection with chronic disease and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Because the risk of PEM is related to the degree of illness, the causal connections between malnutrition and a poorer prognosis are complex. It cannot automatically be inferred that nutritional support will improve the clinical course of patients with wasting disorders. We reviewed studies of the treatment of PEM in cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic heart failure, stroke, dementia, rehabilitation after hip fracture, chronic renal failure, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple disorders in the elderly. Several methodologic problems are associated with nutrition treatment studies in chronically ill patients. These problems include no generally accepted definition of PEM, uncertain patient compliance with supplementation, and a wide range of outcome variables. Avail-able treatment studies indicate that dietary supplements, either alone or in combination with hormonal treatment, may have positive effects when given to patients with manifest PEM or to patients at risk of developing PEM. In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, nutritional treatment may improve respiratory function. Nutritional therapy of elderly women after hip fractures may speed up the rehabilitation process. When administered to elderly patients with multiple disorders, diet therapy may improve functional capacity. The data regarding nutritional treatment of the conditions mentioned above is still inconclusive. There is still a great need for randomized controlled long-term studies of the effects of defined nutritional intervention programs in chronically ill and frail elderly with a focus on determining clinically relevant outcomes.
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PMID:Treatment of protein-energy malnutrition in chronic nonmalignant disorders. 1272 Jun 5

It is often assumed that aging is a uniform process throughout adulthood because of the approximately linear increase of logarithmic mortality. We explored this assumption by analyzing cause-specific mortality increases in France (1979-1994). Rising rapidly at ages 30-54 years ("middle age") are death rates from malignant neoplasms at various sites, acute myocardial infarction, hypertensive disease, and liver cirrhosis. Steeply increasing at 65-89 years ("old age") are death rates from certain infectious diseases, particularly of the respiratory system; certain types of accidents; nonalcoholic mental disorders (probably due mainly to Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia); heart failure; cerebrovascular disease; and some "vague" categories. The processes at work may be fundamentally different in these two life history stages, such that the mortality rise in middle age reflects specific chronic diseases that develop prematurely in some high-risk individuals, whereas the mortality increase in old age is dominated by senescent processes that eventually raise the vulnerability of almost all individuals to multiple pathologies.
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PMID:Differential patterns of age-related mortality increase in middle age and old age. 1463 Aug 73

Cell transplantation is being discussed as a potential therapy for multiple disorders caused by loss or malfunction of single or at most a few cell types. These include diabetes, Parkinson's disease and myocardial infarction or cardiac failure. However, it is not yet clear whether cells from adult tissues ('adult stem cells') or embryos ('embryonic stem cells') will prove to be the most appropriate replacement cells; most likely, each disease will have its own preferred source. This study presents the background to this discussion and the current state of research in replacement of cardiac tissue, with focus on recent developments using human embryonic stem cells. It also describes a new human embryonic stem cell (HESC) line, NL-HESC1, the first to be derived in the Netherlands, and shows that it forms cardiac cells in a manner comparable with that of hES2 and hES3 cells grown in the same laboratory.
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PMID:Human embryonic stem cells: towards therapies for cardiac disease. Derivation of a Dutch human embryonic stem cell line. 1627 13

Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) is a complication to chronic disease and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The causal connections between malnutrition and a poorer prognosis are complex. It cannot automatically be inferred that nutritional support will improve the clinical course of elderly patients with wasting disorders, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic heart failure, stroke, dementia and multiple disorders or after hip fracture. The execution of nutrition treatment studies in chronically ill patients is linked to several methodological problems, including no generally accepted definition of PEM, uncertain patient compliance with supplementation, and a wide range of outcome variables. However, treatment studies indicate that dietary supplements, either alone or in combination with hormonal treatment, may have positive effects. Nutritional therapy given to patients at nutritional risk in conjunction with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease may improve respiratory function. When administered to elderly patients with multiple disorders, diet therapy may improve their functional capacity and given to elderly women after hip fractures nutritional therapy may speed up the rehabilitation process. Nevertheless, there is still a great need for randomised, controlled long-term studies of the effects of nutritional intervention programs for the chronically ill and frail elderly with a focus on determining clinically relevant outcomes.
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PMID:Treatment of protein-energy malnutrition in chronic disorders in the elderly. 1649 Oct 49

Acute renal failure (ARF) incidence varies depending on whether the intensive care unit only or also general and specialist medicine departments are considered. In some cases, however, such as after major cardiosurgical operations, ARF can occur in up to 30% of patients. Most of ARFs in intensive care units are secondary to acute tubular necrosis occurring because of a multi-organ dysfunction syndrome. Factors most often associated with acute renal damage are: advanced age, volume depletion, arterial hypotension, massive bleeding, and sepsis. ARF often leads to complications for the following pathologies: serious liver disease, pancreatitis, pre-existing renal dysfunction, great burns, and cardiosurgical and vascular operations on large vessels. Among the so-called 'iatrogenic factors', contrast media and aminoglycosides are definitely the main cause of a rapid deterioration of renal function. Mortality is low for the isolated forms of ARF,whereas it peaks to 0-80% in multi-organ failures where co-existing pathologies often dominate. The mortality rate over the past 20 years has not changed, although pharmacological supports and especially dialysis instruments have improved. Patients are now older and older, affected by multiple pathologies and with poor recovery capacity. Mortality is higher among elderly patients, while toxic forms (from contrast media or from myoglobinuria) result generally in better outcomes. Patients with acute renal damage and oliguria have a worse prognosis than non-oliguric patients. Finally, some unfavorable prognostic factors include the prolonged use of high dose inotropic drugs, mechanical ventilation, cardiac failure and a septic state.
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PMID:[Epidemiology of acute renal failure]. 1706 24

With the growing epidemic of obesity in an aging population, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is increasingly encountered in clinical practice. Given the acute cardiopulmonary stressors consequent to repetitive upper airway collapse, as well as evidence for cardiovascular homeostatic dysregulation in subjects with sleep apnea, there is ample biologic plausibility that OSA imparts increased cardiovascular risk, independent of comorbid disease. Indeed, observational studies have suggested strong associations with multiple disorders, such as systemic hypertension, heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias, and pulmonary hypertension. Further data in the form of longitudinal cohort studies and randomized controlled trials are accruing to add to the body of evidence. This review examines pathophysiologic mechanisms and explores current concepts regarding the impact of OSA and its treatment on selected clinical disease states.
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PMID:Obstructive sleep apnea, cardiovascular disease, and pulmonary hypertension. 1825 Feb 13

Dyspnea is the uncomfortable awareness of difficult breathing. It is a common symptom in primary and nonprimary care settings. Although multiple disorders and diseases may cause breathlessness, the majority of the conditions are of cardiac or pulmonary origin. The challenge is to establish the diagnosis timely and with minimized investigations. Frequently, information about onset, progression, and circumstances of occurrence considerably narrow the underlying etiology. In most cases, a carefully taken history and a comprehensive physical examination lead to the correct diagnosis. Nevertheless, one should be aware of concomitant conditions and not be satisfied with a diagnosis if comorbidity may still be a candidate in causing dyspnea. Otherwise, it has been observed that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was over-diagnosed in patients with systolic heart failure and dyspnea. A prudential use of investigating modalities for confirmation and exclusion of a questionable diagnosis is the key for allocating the correct therapy and achieving fast symptom relief in patients with dyspnea.
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PMID:The patient with dyspnea. Rational diagnostic evaluation. 2450 67

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF) is frequently associated with multiple disorders complicating both the clinical management and the understanding of the underlying mechanisms. This review focuses on the causes and pathophysiology of HFPEF and overviews how cellular and molecular changes related to various comorbidities may influence the age-dependent and gender-dependent hemodynamic alterations of diastolic ventricular function.
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PMID:Causes and pathophysiology of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. 2497 3


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