Panminerva medica
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Heparin-coated circuits reduce complement activation and inflammatory response to cardiopulmonary bypass.
Clinical procedures involving extracorporeal blood circulation are potentially complicated by the interaction of various blood systems with foreign surfaces. In cardiopulmonary bypass, exposure of blood to synthetic surfaces generally leads to activation of cellular and humoral blood systems with activation of complement cascade. This reaction can be associated with a variety of postoperation clinical complications such as increased pulmonary capillary permeability, anaphylactic reactions and various degrees of organ failure which contributes to mortality in routine cardiac operations. Application of biocompatible materials in an extracorporeal circuit modifies the normal pattern of blood activation, and therefore potentially may reduce clinical complications in routine cardiac surgery. ⋯ In conclusions using the Duraflo II heparin-coated circuit in open heart surgery can reduce the complement activation and inflammatory response to cardiopulmonary bypass.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Many factors can affect the prevalence of hypertension in obese patients: role of cuff size and type of obesity.
To determine to what extent methodological errors, including measurements taken with inappropriate cuffs and/or inaccuracies in patient enrollment, can contribute to overestimating the prevalence of hypertension in overweight or obese women. ⋯ A comparison of different reports on the prevalence of hypertension in obesity reveals considerable differences, due mainly to age, sex, race and income level. Nevertheless, our data seem to indicate that even after adjusting for the above-mentioned variables, two significant confounding factors, cuff hypertension and the prevalence of android obesity in the obese study population, could be responsible for over-estimating the prevalence of hypertension. It should be noted that for certain groups of overweight and obese women, the prevalence of hypertension becomes similar to the rate found among the general population, as reported in many large epidemiological surveys.