Minerva medica
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Isolated systolic hypertension is associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. Despite being the most common form of hypertension in the elderly, it is also detectable among young and middle-aged subjects. ⋯ Excess salt intake, often interacting with overweight and insulin resistance, may contribute to the development and maintenance of isolated systolic hypertension in young individuals by causing endothelial dysfunction and promoting arterial stiffness through a number of mechanisms, namely increase in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system activity, sympathetic tone and salt-sensitivity. This short review focused on the epidemiological and clinical evidence, the mechanistic pathways and the cluster of pathophysiological factors whereby excess salt intake may favor the development and maintenance of isolated systolic hypertension in young people.
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More than 50% of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) present or develop hepatic metastases (HM). The intraoperative use of the Habib 4X® radio frequency probe device is safe in resetting HM and allows a one-stage resection of both CRC and HM with a similar mortality rate than a two-stage surgical treatment. ⋯ The data suggest that surgeons well trained at a reference center for hepato-biliary surgery may perform with excellent results the one-stage CRC and HM resection with the Habib 4X® device even in a Unit of general surgery.
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Psoriasis is a chronic immune-mediated inflammatory disease characterized by erythematous plaques that can extend along the entire skin surface. In the latest years, it has been shown that serum calprotectin correlated strongly with several inflammatory biomarkers. Since high levels of calprotectin have been found in psoriatic lesions, it is of paramount importance to investigate the role of serum calprotectin as a possible novel diagnostic marker of psoriasis. Aim of our prospective pilot study was to assess the level of serum calprotectin in psoriatic patients. ⋯ In this pilot study psoriatic patients had a significant high level of serum calprotectin than healthy subjects, and this biomarker had high accuracy in identifying patients. Further studies, with larger sample size will need to confirm our data.
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Coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) may cause symptoms of myocardial ischemia (microvascular angina [MVA]), but recent studies suggested that it might also contribute to the syndrome of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). In this study we assessed the relation of CMD with findings of HFpEF in MVA patients. ⋯ Our data suggest that in patients with MVA there is no relation between the grade of impairment of coronary microvascular dilatation and findings of HFpEF.