hypertension and risk factors

BACKGROUND: An interarm difference (IAD) in blood pressure (BP) of 10 mmHg or more is a potential cardiovascular risk factor in adults, given its association with cardiovascular events/mortality. In children and adolescents, accurate BP assessment is critical for identifying risk of end organ damage. However, IAD has not been systematically studied in paediatric patients; if present and of significant magnitude, measuring BP in only one arm could lead to misclassification of hypertensive status...

INTRODUCTION: Despite rapid population aging, there are currently limited data on the incidence of aging-related cognitive impairment in sub-Saharan Africa. We aimed to determine the incidence of cognitive impairment and its distribution across key demographic, social, and health-related factors among older adults in rural South Africa. METHODS: Data were from in-person interviews with 3,856 adults aged ≥40 who were free from cognitive impairment at baseline in the population-representative cohort, "Health and Aging in Africa: a Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa" (HAALSI), in Agincourt sub-district, Mpumalanga province, South Africa (2014-19)...

The novel corona virus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak which started in Hubei province in China has now spread to every corner of the earth. While the pandemic started later in Africa, it is now found in all African countries to varying degrees. It is thought that the prevalence and severity of disease is influenced by a number of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) which are all becoming increasingly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In addition, SSA bears the major burden of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB) infections...

BACKGROUND: In February 2020 the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection started spreading throughout Italy, hitting the Lombardy region very hard. Despite the high diffusion, only a subset of patients developed severe COVID-19: around 25% of them developed acute kidney injury (AKI) and one-third of them died. Elderly patients and patients with high comorbidities were identified as being at higher risk of severe COVID-19. METHODS: Our prospective observational cohort study includes 392 consecutive patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in Milan (median age 67 years, 75% male)...

Importance: Schizophrenia is associated with cognitive dysfunction and cardiovascular risk factors, including metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its constituent criteria. Cognitive dysfunction and cardiovascular risk factors can worsen cognition in the general population and may contribute to cognitive impairment in schizophrenia. Objective: To study the association between cognitive dysfunction and cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive impairment in individuals with schizophrenia...

Importance: Surgery is a teachable moment, and smoking cessation interventions that coincide with an episode of surgical care are especially effective. Implementing these interventions at a large scale requires understanding the prevalence and characteristics of smoking among surgical patients. Objectives: To describe the prevalence of smoking in a population of patients undergoing common surgical procedures and to identify any clinical or demographic characteristics associated with smoking...

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular risk factors are frequently associated with lowered cognitive performance among elderly people, but rarely among middle-aged adults. OBJECTIVES: To investigate associations between cardiovascular risk factors (age, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol use, hypertension and diabetes) and lower cognitive performance among middle-aged (45-64 years) Brazilian adults. DESIGN AND SETTING: Cross-sectional study nested within the Pró-Saúde cohort...

RATIONALE: Northern Italy has been particularly hit by the current Covid-19 pandemic. Italian deceased patients have a mean age of 78.5 years and only 1.2% have no comorbidities. These data started a public debate whether patients die "with" or "from" Covid-19. If on one hand the public opinion has been persuaded to believe that Covid-19 infection has poor outcomes just in elderly and/or fragile subjects, on the other hand, hospitals are admitting an increasing number of healthy young patients needing semi-intensive or intensive care units...

Endometrial cancer represents the most frequent neoplasia from the corpus uteri, and comprises the 14th leading cause of death in women worldwide. Risk factors that contribute to the disease include early menarche, late menopause, nulliparity, and menopausal hormone use, as well as hypertension and obesity comorbidities. The clinical effectiveness of chemotherapy is variable, suggesting that novel molecular targeted therapies against specific cellular processes associated with the maintenance of cancer cell survival and therapy resistance urged to ameliorate the rates of success in endometrial cancer treatment...

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the primary cause of global morbidity and mortality. CVD includes various life-threatening conditions such as myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral arterial diseases. In this context, atherosclerosis continues to play the principal role in the pathogenesis of these conditions. Atherosclerosis emanates from a set of modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors that include age, male gender, family history, obesity, smoking, diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Recent evidence classifies atherosclerosis as a latent disease affecting all-sized arteries with a predilection for arterial branching points of decreased or absent blood supply...

BACKGROUND: Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) is available in varying size and resolution. We sought to characterize associations of cardiometabolic factors with retinal microvascular changes using 3x3-mm, 6x6-mm and 8x8-mm OCTA scans to determine differences in detection with varying scan size. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 247 cardiovascular patients from a single-centre tertiary-care hospital. Demographic, comorbidity, and medication data were obtained...

Predisposing factors of new-onset orthostatic intolerance (OI) after bariatric surgery (BS) are unknown. The purpose of this study is to summarize current existing data on new-onset OI after BS. Materials and methods were considered for a search of articles that were published by the 30th of July 2020. A systematic review in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and in line with the protocol agreed by all authors was conducted. Of the 604 initially identified articles, four studies were found to match the established criteria and were extracted for eligibility...

The intensive care units (ICUs) are among the most expensive and essential parts of all hospitals for extremely ill patients. This study aims to predict mortality and explore the crucial factors affecting it. Generally, in the health care systems, having a fast and precise ICU mortality prediction for patients plays a key role in care quality, resulting in reduced costs and improved survival chances of the patients. In this study, we used a medical dataset, including patients' demographic details, underlying diseases, laboratory disorder, and LOS...

The relationship between arterial hypertension and cognitive decline, two among the conditions with higher prevalence in the elderly population, has gained significant interest, in the scientific community, during the last few years, stemming from the numerous epidemiologic, experimental, and therapeutic evidences suggesting a non-casual correlation between the two conditions. In fact, the brain, for its substantial metabolic and functional complexity, is more susceptible to the harmful effect of high blood pressure than the other target organs...

Despite optimal medical therapies, there is currently a persistent residual cardiovascular risk. The most likely pathway responsible for this residual risk has been identified in the inflammatory state. Recent studies have confirmed that inflammation increases cardiovascular risk independently from LDL cholesterol levels. Addressing traditional risk factors, such as obesity, cigarette smoking, diabetes, arterial hypertension, and dyslipidaemia, also provides an important reduction of the levels of inflammation...

High blood pressure (BP) is a leading cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and at the same time represents its most frequent complication. High BP is an independent risk factor for advanced CKD; on the other hand, at least 40% of patients with normal glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and virtually all patients with GFR <30 mL/min are hypertensive. CKD and microalbuminuria are powerful risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Consequently, in uraemic hypertension, it is of utmost importance to carefully manage both high BP and microalbuminuria, in order to slow down the progression of kidney damage and to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events...

Cardiac oncology is a subspecialty of cardiology engaging cardiologists and oncologists alike, in order to provide the best possible oncologic treatment for patients at high cardiovascular risk or developing cardio-toxicity during the course of their treatment, thus avoiding discontinuing it, and aiming at improving survival and quality of life. Early diagnosis and the effectiveness of the newer cancer treatments delivered an increasing number of long-term survivors (presently almost 30 million worldwide), at high risk of developing cardiovascular diseases...

Myocardial work is a new echocardiography-based diagnostic tool, which allows to quantify left ventricular performance based on pressure-strain loops, and has been validated against invasively derived pressure-volume measurements. Myocardial work is described by its components (global constructive work [GCW], global wasted work [GWW]) and indices (global work index [GWI], global work efficiency [GWE]). Applying this innovative concept, we characterized the prevalence and severity of subclinical left ventricular compromise in the general population and estimated its association with cardiovascular (CV) risk factors...

Survivors of the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 had higher risks of cardiovascular diseases and hypertension, particularly residents of heavy flooding areas and evacuees. Thus far, the association between the prevalence of hypertension and dairy consumption remains unknown among these evacuees. We investigated this association by housing type after the Great East Japan Earthquake. In this cross-sectional study, we conducted a baseline survey among 9569 survivors of the earthquake, aged ≥18 years, between September 2011 and February 2012...

Population-based strategies targeting modifiable risk factors are needed to improve the prevention of hypertension. Long working hours have been linked to high blood pressure (BP), but more longitudinal research is required. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of long working hours (≥41 h/week) on ambulatory BP mean over a 2.5-year follow-up. The effect modification of family responsibilities was also investigated. A repeated longitudinal design was used. Data collection was performed at three-time points over a 2...