Cardiology Letters, 2011 (vol. 20), issue 3
Review
Acetylsalicylic acid. Where is its real place in the therapy of patients with diabetes mellitus?
Dukát A, Kriška M, Šimko F, Rajec J
Cardiology Letters 2011, 20(3):221-225 
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is characterised by the presence of macrovascular and microvascular complications which are already present in the early stages of manifest disease. Clinically they lead to enhanced atherosclerosis and atherothrombosis (i.e. coronary heart disease, stroke, or peripheral arterial disease). Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus have a 2 - 4 times greater risk of coronary artery disease and, with this disease but without myocardial infarction, have the same risk of repeated myocardial infarction, but without diabetes mellitus. The abnormal metabolic status that accompanies diabetes mellitus leads to abnormalities in endothelial...
Clinical synergy of perindopril arginine and amlodipine combination in hypertension thera
Remková A
Cardiology Letters 2011, 20(3):228-237
It is known that at least a two-drug antihypertensive combination is necessary in the majority of patients to reach BP goals associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular events. The combination of an ACE inhibitor, perindopril arginine, plus a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker (CCB), amlodipine, with different and complementary mechanisms of action may achieve additive or synergistic pharmacodynamic interaction resulting in more efficient BP lowering through 24 hours, improved fibrinolytic function and reduction of secondary effects related to the pharmacological properties of each agent. Large outcome trials such as ASCOT-BPLA and its substudies...
Case report
Importance of serotonin in the etiopathogenesis of iatrogenic valvular heart diseases and pulmonary hypertension.
Hrnčiar J, Hrnčiarová M
Cardiology Letters 2011, 20(3):238-245
The work presents an overwiew of acquired valvular heart diseases caused by the abundance of serotonin from a carcinoid of the gastrointestinal tract, producing an excessive amount of serotonin from hepatal metastases. Later serotoninergic valvulopathies were observed after use of ergotamine and methylsergid (the alkaloid used to cure migraine). Most cases were observed at the end of the 20th century when the anorectics fenfluramine and feneteramine were widely used to cure obesity. As a result these medicaments were contraindicated by the FDA in the year 1997. The abundance of serotonin has a proinflammatory and fibrositing effect, which gives rise...
Clinical study
Overestimated effect of body height on blood pressure in National Blood Pressure Education Program (NHBPEP) classification
Regecová V, Šimurka P, Kellerová E, Jurko A jr.
Cardiology Letters 2011, 20(3):207-214
Aim: The aim was to analyze the percentile distribution of blood pressure (BP) values according in order to body height and age in representative groups of 11 and 17 years (y) old boys (B) and girls (G) in Slovakia to point out some pitfalls in the routine application of the National High Blood Pressure Education Program on High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents (NHBPEP) standards. The work is also focused on the questions to what extent can the percentile distribution of BP and thus the classification into prehypertension and hypertension category be influenced by varying proportions of obese individuals with evidently higher BP. Patients...
nkle-brachial index as a predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Kmecová D, Kozárová M, Rašiová M, Kmec J
Cardiology Letters 2011, 20(3):215-220
Cardiovascular diseases are still one of the major causes of high morbidity and mortality throughout the world. Acute cardiovascular events often occur in patients without known preexisting cardiovascular disease, so the early identification of patients with subclinical atherosclerosis is necessary in clinical practice. The stratification of cardiovascular risk according to the established tables may underestimate the global cardiovascular risk. That is why other methods should be used. One of them is the measurement of the ankle-brachial index: a recognized marker of subclinical atherosclerosis. The measurement of the ankle-brachial index is a non-invasive,...