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The homeless population in Germany is continually increasing. Featuring prominently among those on the increase are women, young persons and homeless people from East Germany. Studies of the health of homeless individuals in recent years show that indices of illness are far higher for many disorders than for comparable groups who are housed. One result from a recent study by the University of Mainz (1994) was that more than 90% of homeless people urgently need medical treatment. According this research, the main health problems of the homeless are: cardiac disease (hypertension, CAD) (52.5%), skin disease (scabies, lice, leg ulcers, abscesses, pyodermias) and acute infections (50%), lower respiratory tract (COAD) (47.5%) and trauma victims (50%), followed by liver (30%), kidney (25%) and gastrointestinal diseases (GU) (20%). The problems of alcoholism and mental disorders of various sorts are added to this picture. Violence to homeless people is increasing. A lot of homeless people are multi-morbid. The relationship between the time of homelessness and the state of illness was not linear. It was found that in the beginning of homelessness most of the homeless people were in a poor physical condition. The poor physical condition of homeless people does not stem from only one cause, but results from a combination of different factors: individual social conditions (social class; social relations; sedentary lifestyle), personal or family life crisis (life events and coping behaviour), the individual risk behaviour (for instance the bizarre sleeping accommodations, alcohol and cigarette consumption unemployment in a depressed economy, structure of the society (cutbacks in government welfare and social service programmes). As a result of bad experiences with existing medical institutions, homeless persons do not consult the doctor or too late. Many are afraid of large institutions; most are not members of a health insurance scheme (uninsured); and many are perceived in some sense to be "undesirable" as patients. Medical care offers for homeless people must be re-examined and changed appropriately in accordance with the requirements of the patients and the acceptability of the measures. Health care for the homeless is sorely needed. It is an urgent necessity to create special low-level acceptance medical care institutions. This health care service should be made available to homeless persons at the places where they gather (to set up a mobile medical service, medical streetwork, medical care ambulances). The interdisciplinary theme approach, which integrates the skills of physicians, nurses and social workers, is an invaluable strategy for establishing though and continuous care. Without good health, homeless people cannot resolve their other basic problems; and people simply cannot be healthy if they do not have a stable place to live.
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PMID:[Health status and medical care accessibility of single, homeless persons]. 933 72

In addition to traditional risk factors (cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, and elevated cholesterol) psychosocial factors (depression, social isolation, and low socioeconomic status) have an adverse impact on prognosis of patients with CAD. Several studies of psychosocial and behavioral treatments provide encouraging evidence for the clinical efficacy of psychosocial interventions in CAD patients. A new, multicenter clinical trial now underway (see sidebar) will evaluate the impact of psychosocial interventions (compared to usual care) on all-cause mortality and nonfatal MI in post-MI patients with depression or perceived low levels of social support or both.
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PMID:Psychosocial factors and coronary disease. A national multicenter clinical trial (ENRICHD) with a North Carolina focus. 939 58

An interaction between high plasma lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], unfavorable plasma lipids, and other risk factors may lead to very high risk for premature CAD. Plasma Lp(a), lipids, and other coronary risk factors were examined in 170 cases with early familial CAD and 165 control subjects to test this hypothesis. In univariate analysis, relative odds for CAD were 2.95 (P < .001) for plasma Lp(a) above 40 mg/dL. Nearly all the risk associated with elevated Lp(a) was found to be restricted to persons with historically elevated plasma total cholesterol (6.72 mmol/L [260 mg/dL] or higher) or with a total/HDL cholesterol ratio > 5.8. Nonlipid risk factors were also found to at least multiply the risk associated with Lp(a). When Lp(a) was over 40 mg/dL and plasma total/HDL cholesterol > 5.8, relative odds for CAD were 25 (P = .0001) in multiple logistic regression. If two or more nonlipid risk factors were also present (including hypertension, diabetes, cigarette smoking, high total homocysteine, or low serum bilirubin), relative odds were 122 (P < 1 x 10(-12)). The ability of nonlipid risk factors to increase risk associated with Lp(a) was dependent on at least a mildly elevated total/HDL cholesterol ratio. In conclusion, high Lp(a) was found to greatly increase risk only if the total/HDL cholesterol ratio was at least mildly elevated, an effect exaggerated by other risk factors. Aggressive lipid lowering in those with elevated Lp(a) therefore appears indicated.
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PMID:Lipoprotein(a) interactions with lipid and nonlipid risk factors in early familial coronary artery disease. 940 56

In the United States alone, it is estimated that 60 million people have hypertension, the estimate varying according to whether hypertension is defined as a blood pressure of >140/90 mm Hg or, as has emerged from the Sixth Joint National Commission on Hypertension (JNC VI) consensus conference, of >130/90 mm Hg. Coronary artery disease frequently accompanies hypertension. In our studies of >5,000 patients with coronary artery disease, half had hypertension. The reasons are numerous. Hypertension is a major risk factor for CAD. The incidence of both conditions increases with age, so that the majority of individuals >65 years of age with coronary artery disease probably also have hypertension. Some authorities predict that, due to the increasing size of the elderly population, there will be a doubling in the prevalence of both coronary artery disease and hypertension in the next century. This is of vital concern to all clinicians. This article reviews some of the prevalence and population trends in coronary artery disease and hypertension, and some of the pathogenic mechanisms involved, as well the results of some current outcome trials.
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PMID:Systemic hypertension and coronary artery disease. 971 18

The proposal that antioxidants may retard the progression of atherosclerosis is not new. Published studies examining the effect of antioxidants on experimental antioxidants extend back to 1940. The results have all been inconsistent. However, the data regarding the beneficial effects of retarding atherosclerotic progression are strong enough to warrant continued research on the lipoprotein oxidation theory or atherosclerosis. However, caution is needed to avoid embracing a concept without proof. It should be noted that the National Cholesterol Education Program does not recommend the use of antioxidant vitamin supplements to reduce CAD. Atherogenesis is produced by multiple factors. To believe that all such factors are mediated by uncontrolled oxidative events is, to say the least, naive. Finally, should antioxidants prove to be effective in retarding coronary atherosclerosis, their place on the therapeutic ladder of CAD prevention would be low. The overwhelmingly proven evidence favors the following factors that have been proven to lower morbidity and mortality due to atherosclerosis: (a) treatment of hypertension, (b) cessation of tobacco use, (c) treatment of dyslipidemia, (d) achieving a normal weight, (e) regular exercise, (f) treatment of homocystinuria, especially in cases with renal disease, and (g) antioxidants.
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PMID:The use of antioxidants in retarding atherosclerosis: fact or fiction? 1007 4

CAD is the most common cause of death in older men and was present in 44% of 664 men, mean age 80 years. Independent risk factors for new coronary events in older men include increasing age, prior CAD, cigarette smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, high serum total cholesterol, and low serum HDL cholesterol. In older men with hypertension, echocardiographic LVH is a powerful independent predictor of new coronary events, atherothrombotic brain infarction, and CHF. In 554 older men with a mean age of 80 years, two-dimensional and Doppler echocardiography demonstrated that the prevalence of aortic stenosis was 14%, 1 + aortic regurgitation or greater was 31%, rheumatic mitral stenosis was 0.4, 1 mitral regurgitation or greater was 32%, mitral annular calcium was 35%, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was 3%, idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy was 1%, left atrial enlargement was 29%, LVH was 41%, and abnormal LVEF was 29%. The prevalence and incidence of CHF increase with age in older persons. The prevalence of a normal LVEF associated with CHF as a result of prior myocardial infarction or hypertension was 22% in men aged 60 to 69 years, 33% in men aged 70 to 79 years, 41% in men aged 80 to 89 years, and 47% in men aged 90 years or older.
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PMID:The older man's heart and heart disease. 1050 66

There are contrasting data about the relationship between obesity and macrovascular complications in type 2 diabetes mellitus, and it is not known if risk factors for coronary artery disease are different in normal weight and overweight or obese patients. All 2113 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus referring to the Diabetic Clinic of Asti were studied. Patients were divided into tertiles of body mass index, according to their sex (BMI < 26.9; >/= 26.9 and < 31.4; >/= 31.4 kg/m(2) for females and BMI < 25.7; >/= 25.7 and < 28.8; >/= 28.8 kg/m(2) for males). Age, BMI, duration of diabetes, blood pressure, HbA(1c) total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and prevalence of insulin treatment and hypertension were higher in females, whereas exercise, alcohol intake, smoking habits and prevalence of dyslipidemia were higher in males. An increase in BMI was associated with an increase in HbA(1c), number of cigarettes/day, blood pressure, triglycerides, C-peptide, prevalence of hypertension and dyslipidemia, and with a decrease in age, duration of diabetes and HDL-cholesterol values. In spite of an apparently worse cardiovascular risk profile, females showed a 50% lower prevalence of CAD than males and the prevalence of CAD was not significantly different in obese compared to other BMI categories. Multiple logistic regression showed that risk factors for CAD were different in males and females and similar in the lower tertiles of BMI, while different in the highest. In obese females, risk factors for CAD were age, reduced HDL-cholesterol and increased HbA(1c) levels; in males they were years of smoking and duration of diabetes. These data suggest that in type 2 diabetes, risk factors for CAD are different in the two sexes and in patients with the highest BMI compared to the normal and overweight subjects; blood glucose control and duration of diabetes seem more important than conventional cardiovascular risk factors in obese patients.
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PMID:Sex- and BMI-related differences in risk factors for coronary artery disease in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. 1066 19

The prevention of CHD should be a major priority among primary care physicians and subspecialists who have any dealing with the cardiovascular system. There is ample evidence from epidemiologic studies for the impact of specific risk factors on CHD events. There is also ample evidence from observational studies and clinical trials that interventions of lifestyle and pharmacologic therapy can decrease morbidity and mortality from CHD before or after the first event. It behooves the physician who wishes to practice good medicine to understand the pathophysiologic roles of the risk factors and the evidence from epidemiologic studies and clinical trials for their association with cardiovascular disease. It is important to determine the efficacy of interventions, both lifestyle and pharmacologic, in modifying CHD risk. To be effective in doing so, the practicing physician has to have the motivation to determine target goals for risk factor modification in each patient, to understand the patient's own motivations in modifying risk factors, and to define clearly with the patient the expectations of such interventions. Although there are guidelines for risk factor modification in modification of cholesterol and in hypertension, the periodic renewal of these guidelines reflects the changing concepts of risk and its modification. A cardiovascular risk factor intervention categorization is presented in Table 12. The physician must be convinced that such intervention is beneficial to the patient, cost-effective, and thus fulfills the expectations of medical practice. The practice of medicine in the evaluation and treatment of coronary heart disease has always been challenging and stimulating. The prevention of CAD disease should ultimately provide the greatest accomplishment.
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PMID:Prevention of coronary heart disease. Part II. Secondary prevention, detection of subclinical disease, and emerging risk factors. 1070 69

All uremic patients have multiple risk factors for CAD including in many, the conditions that caused their ESRD--for example, diabetes and hypertension. conventional risk factors--for example, dyslipidemia and hyperhomocysteinemia. risk factors that are unique to uremia--for example, calcium and phosphate abnormalities. PD patients have particular risk with respect to their lipid status and hyperinsulinemia. Many of these risks are potentially modifiable, but evidence does not exist to assess the impact of treatment on clinical outcomes. Therefore, current decisions for therapy directed at risk factor modification must be made on an individual basis.
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PMID:Major and minor risk factors for cardiovascular disease in peritoneal dialysis. 1091 62

Although non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is considered a major cause of death, the role of some independent risk factors in diabetic patients is under debate. In fact the prognosis of NIDDM diabetes varies considerably in relation to the individual risk pattern, and the different studies are not directly comparable because of differences in size, age and geography of the samples, and type of statistical analysis. The aim of the study is to identify the independent predictors of mortality in a cohort of subjects with NIDDM, and to verify whether the relative risk (RR) of cardiovascular mortality is different in comparison to that of coeval non-diabetic subjects from a general population. The study includes 683 patients with NIDDM from the Northern Italian town of Pordenone, followed up for 6 years and age- and sex-matched to 683 non-diabetic subjects from a Northern Italian general population. When the two cohorts were compared, NIDDM turned out to be a strong risk factor for cardiovascular mortality (RR: 2.67). Age, coronary artery disease (RR: 1.78), arterial hypertension (RR: 1.39), macro- (RR: 2.97) and microalbuminuria (RR: 2.01) were independent predictors of cardiovascular mortality in the diabetics. In conclusion, survival of diabetic patients is worse than that of non-diabetic coeval subjects. Only few items are able to predict cardiovascular mortality in the diabetics, namely age, hypertension, CAD, macro- and microalbuminuria.
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PMID:Cardiovascular mortality in non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. A controlled study among 683 diabetics and 683 age- and sex-matched normal subjects. 1107 26


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