Cardiology Letters, 2015 (vol. 24), issue 2

Editorial

Comment on ESC Guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of aortic diseases

Maďarič J, Vulev I

Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(2):57-59

Review

Differences between renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors according to their impact on mortality and major cardiovascular events in hypertension

Remková A

Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(2):70-76

The renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), essential for the regulation of blood pressure, cardiovascular and renal function, is a key therapeutic target in hypertension. A series of the latest metaanalyses from large hypertension trials has shown that RAAS inhibitors significantly reduce relative risk for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Separately, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors produce a significant reduction in relative risk for all-cause mortality and a trend toward a significant reduction in cardiovascular mortality, whereas angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) have no effect. All meta-analyses almost consistently...

Recommendations

2014 ESC Guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of aortic diseases

ESC Committee for Practice Guidelines (CPG

Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(2):77-125

Document covering acute and chronic aortic diseases of the thoracic and abdominal aorta of the adultThe Task Force for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Aortic Diseases of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)

Experimental study

The role of melatonin in protecting the heart against malignant arrhythmias

Beňová T, Viczenczová C, Radošinská J, Szeiffová Bačová B, Knezl V, Dosenko V, Weismann P, Zeman M, Navarová J, Tribulová N

Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(2):60-69

Objectives: It is very well known from experimental as well as clinical studies that the pineal hormone, melatonin, which regulates circadian rhythms, exhibits cardioprotective effects. The goal of the study was to confirm our hypothesis and to explore the antiarrhythmic effects of the supplementation of melatonin in hypertensive and normotensive rats. Additionally, we aimed to discover the supposed mechanisms of these effects, i.e. the cooperation of cardiac connexin-43 (Cx43), which provides electrical signal transmission, and the effect of protein kinase C epsilon (PKCε), which modulates Cx43. Methods: We used spontaneously hypertensive...