Panminerva medica
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The polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) affects 5-10% of women of child-bearing age, and the diagnosis carries with it associated metabolic and cardiovascular risk factors that are likely linked to insulin resistance. Consequently, women affected by PCOS are at significant risk for developing type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and obstructive sleep apnea. Aggressive screening for glucose intolerance and cardiovascular risk factors should be performed in all PCOS patients, and, when indicated by symptomatology, affected women should be screened for sleep apnea. Long-term goals of therapy should focus on prevention of these comorbidities.
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Several studies indicate a relationship among depression, anxiety, pain and hospitalization. Depression has a bidirectional relationship with cardiovascular disease, and it is observed in HIV-positive individuals, in cancer patients and it often complicates chronic pain. ⋯ Screening for anxiety and depression should be included in the clinical interview carried out by the nurse at the moment of admission to the ward.
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Review
Potential relationship between Helicobacter pylori and ischemic heart disease: any pathogenic model?
Helicobacter pylori (H.pylori), causal agent of several gastroduodenal diseases, has been involved in diverse aspects of many extragastric manifestations, including ischemic heart disease (IHD). The present paper focuses on the potential pathogenic mechanisms relating H. pylori to IHD. ⋯ In conclusion, because IHD is a multifactorial disease, it is evident that H. pylori is not the only cause. Thus, the definition of H. pylori or other infectious agents as culprits requires a multidisciplinary approach.
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Cell-based cardiac repair has the ambitious aim to replace the malfunctioning cardiac muscle developed after myocardial infarction, with new contractile cardiomyocytes and vessels. Different stem cell populations have been intensively studied in the last decade as a potential source of new cardiomyocytes to ameliorate the injured myocardium, compensate for the loss of ventricular mass and contractility and eventually restore cardiac function. An array of cell types has been explored in this respect, including skeletal muscle, bone marrow derived stem cells, embryonic stem cells (ESC) and more recently cardiac progenitor cells. ⋯ However, due to their immunogenicity, risk of tumor development and the ethical challenge arising from their embryonic origin, they do not provide a suitable cell source for a regenerative therapy approach. A better option, overcoming ethical and allogenicity problems, seems to be provided by bone marrow derived cells and by the recently identified cardiac precursors. This report will overview current knowledge on these different cell types and their application in cardiac regeneration and address issues like implementation of delivery methods, including tissue engineering approaches that need to be developed alongside.
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A wide range of infectious diseases can result in dementia, although the identity and nature of these diseases has changed over time. Two of the most significant current groups in terms of scientific complexity are HIV/AIDS and prion diseases. In these disorders, dementia occurs either as a consequence of targeting the brain and selectively damaging neurones, or by an indirect effect of neuroinflammation. ⋯ An ever-increasing range of model systems is now available to study the neuronal damage in infectious dementias, ranging from cell culture systems to animal models, some of which, particularly in the case of prion diseases, are very well characterised and amenable to controlled manipulation in terms of both host and agent parameters. As valuable as these experimental models are, they do not allow a direct approach to an understanding of dementia, the complexities of which cannot readily be studied in vitro or in animal models, but they do allow studies of interventions and therapeutic strategies. This review summarises the current state of knowledge regarding the major infective dementias.