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Introduction: Myocardial involvement in pericardial diseases and the effect of pericardial inflammation and effusion on the function of the left ventricle (LV) is still a controversial issue. The present study aimed to evaluate LV regional wall abnormalities in patients with acute peri-myocarditis, using 3D echocardiographic assessment of LV contractility. Material and methods: The study included 56 subjects divided into two groups: Group 1 - 28 subjects with acute peri-myocarditis and Group 2 - 28 healthy controls. All subjects underwent a complete clinical examination, including laboratory tests. 3D echocardiography was performed to assess the left ventricular end-diastolic (EDV) and end-systolic volumes (ESV), and to calculate specific indexes for global and regional ventricular contractility, such as the index of contraction amplitude (ICA) and the regional index of contraction amplitude (RICA) for each segment corresponding to the region affected by peri- myocarditis. Results: 3D echocardiography showed no differences between the groups regarding the EDV (p = 0.2), the LV ejection fraction (Group 1: 55.82% ± 3.36% vs. Group 2: 57.21% ± 4.69%, p = 0.2). The ESV however, was significantly higher in Group 1 compared to Group 2 (55.78 ± 5.45 ml vs. 52.20 ± 6.43 ml, p = 0.04). ICA was similar between the groups (p = 0.2). However, the RICA was significantly lower in Group 1 compared to Group 2 (2.27 ± 0.63 vs. 5.16 ± 0.54, p

Introduction: The present study aims to demonstrate the role of acute impairment of regional contractility, as assessed by 3D echocardiography, in predicting LV remodeling in post acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients.

Background: The relationship between insulin resistance and hypertension is well established, but the association of different surrogate insulin resistance indexes with the presence of hypertension is still under debate. The aim of this study was to compare the strength of the association between the presence of hypertension and six indexes: triglyceride/HDL cholesterol ratio (TG/HDL-C), Triglyceride Glucose (TyG) Index, Visceral adiposity index (VAI), Lipid accumulation product (LAP), TyG-Body mass index (TyG-BMI), and TyG-Waist circumference (TyG-WC). Methods: Data from a cross-sectional epidemiological study enrolling a sample representative for the Romanian population aged 18–80 years, excluding those with diabetes or requiring treatment for hypertriglyceridemia, were used to calculate the six indexes. The association with the presence of hypertension was examined with binomial and multinomial logistic regression. Results: In multinomial logistic models, which included age, gender, smoking, drinking, sedentary lifestyle, estimated glomerular filtration rate, urinary sodium, urinary albumin creatinine ratio, and use of medications known to influence insulin resistance as covariates, all individual components and surrogate insulin resistance indexes were independently associated with the presence of hypertension. Values of pseudo R square ranged from 0.342 for the multivariate model including TG/HDL-C to 0.357 for the model including TyG-WC, but with no clear superiority of any of the tested indexes over all others. Models including BMI and WC had a similar ability to predict the presence of hypertension as most of the surrogate indexes and they were slightly superior to TG/HDL-C and TyG. Conclusions: Although TG/HDL-C, VAI, LAP, TyG, TyG-BMI, and TyG-WC were independently associated with the presence of hypertension, no superiority could be demonstrated over the use of BMI and WC as predictors of hypertension in this cross-sectional study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction-Atrial fibrillation (AF) accounts for over 50% of strokes, also known as cerebrovascular accidents (CVAs). We report a case of a right atrial (RA) myxoma presenting as paroxysmal AF, syncope and acute chest pain, in a patient with previous CVA. Description of the problem. A 62-year-old Caucasian woman was admitted for an episode of syncope and acute chest pain. Two years earlier she had suffered a CVA. Paroxysmal AF was noted at that time. At current presentation pulmonary thromboembolism (PE) was ruled out by pulmonary CT. TTE combined with TOE showed a large moving mass in the RA, prolapsing through the tricuspid valve into the right ventricle. The coronary arteries were normal. The patient underwent surgical treatment. The histopathological study confi rmed diagnosis of myxoma. Questions, problems. Up to 25% of myxomas are found in RA. Chest pain is infrequent. Syncope is experienced by approximately 20% of patients. Our patient had confi rmed TTE obstruction of the tricuspid valve and PE was ruled out by CT pulmonary scan. Conclusions-TTE must be considered at admission to clarify etiology in all AF and stroke patients. Although TOE is more sensitive, TTE is usually adequate for the diagnosis of cardiac myxomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an invention (pending patent number A 201100939) related to a system that monitors human body parameters, such as heart rate and blood pressure, and when they are out of the regular range, it transmits a remote warning signal along with the GPS coordinates of the patient to the special intervention services, or to the tutors, so that they can take action in the shortest time. The most important aspect of the system is its mobility, the patient being able to live her normal life, not having to stay in a fix perimeter, as it is the case for most monitoring equipments. The scope of the invention is the health of people, both individually and at the institutions involved in health insurance, such as clinics, hospitals, emergency services, rescue, SMURD, social settlements, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Romanian Journal of Physical Therapy / Revista Romana de Kinetoterapie is the property of University of Oradea Publishing House and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The study is a first attempt at a systematic analysis of the Greek poetry of resistance in the twentieth century, when Greece went through two military dictatorships, the heroic resistance against the invading armies of Mussolini (1940 - 1941), the triple German- Italian-Bulgarian occupation (1941 - 1944 ) and the bloody civil war from 1946 to 1949. The poetic resistance phenomenon is investigated both for the great poets of Greece from the period between the two world wars: Yorgos Seferis, Elytis Odyseas, Anghel Sikelianos, and Yannis Ritsos Nicos Engonopoulos and for the poets belonging to the first post war generation ("the poetry of defeat"): Manolis Anagnostakis, Titos Patrikios, Thanasis Kostavaras, Klitos Kyrou, Panos Thasitis, Aris Alexandrou, Miltos Sajturis, Tasos Livaditis, Eleni Vakalo, Yannis Dallas, as well as for the second generation (the 60s) of the last century: Anestis Evanghelou, Markos mesk, Prodromos Markoglou, Maria Kendrou - Agathopoulpu, Maria Karaghianni. The author reveals the important aspects of their poetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a larger thesis, this study represents a first trial to clarify the diversity of the terms used in researching the phenomenon of literary resistance to the totalitarian communist regime: resistance in literature and/or resistance through literature, survival through literature, dissidence, opposition, and subversion. It also tries to shed light on the theoretical aspect of the different forms of literary resistance : active, passive, reflexive, of survival, mystical- religious, the divergence towards power, as well as on the types of resistance : armed, organized, spontaneous or chaotic. The author opts for the wider sense of the term resistance, which captures in its dissidence, as well as opposition, as forms of resistance and he distinguishes between three different manifestations of poetic resistance: the escapist lyricism, the subversive poetry and the dissident poetry. The above division in the poetry of resistance is embraced by other literary critics who expressed an opinion with regard to this literary phenomenon. Meanwhile, the author emphasizes the value of the resistance to the totalitarian communist regime as a moral example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While devoting several studies to the work of some foreign authors, the great Romanian literary critic and historian, George Călinescu, adopts the same method he had appplied in his research on European culture and literature. His aesthetic, historic and literary reasoning and his special means and vision, with permanent reference to the sphere of totality, and mostly, to the masterpieces of world literature, serve as proof of the historian's lack of any cultural complex. While analysing an author or a piece of work, he passes from one culture to another and emphasizes not necessarily a culture's possible quality as a model, but a masterpiece's nature as a manifestation of individuality. Yet he goes beyond simply referring to the masterpiece; he sets it in a historical context and identifies its compliance with the relative limits of a certain literary trend, while placing its author in time and space. Without changing, in any way, his own style, G. Călinescu comes closer to authors belonging to literatures other than Romanian (Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, German, Russian) in a free and detached way, 'trying to establish altitudes and to balance values'. We owe to G. Călinescu not only' the first big Romanian effort of original interpretation, in an aesthetic way, of foreign literatures', but also the first studies of comparative literature, through which he fits Romanian literature in a European and a Universal context. Moreover, the great critic explains his intention through his guiding principle about the impossibility to study Romanian literature separately from foreign literatures. The historic and literary truth has to possess a large vision, open to analogy and to pertinent, valid comparisons. In his studies of foreign authors, G. Călinescu achieves more than simply the opening of new paths in Romanian literary critique; he becomes an example to follow both in his acknowledgment of the values held by other cultures and literatures, and in his successful completion of some vast historic and literary research studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Administering optimal cardiovascular medication (OCM) to patients with hypertension (HBP) and ischemic heart disease (IHD) lowers cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.The main objective of this study was to compare in-hospital cardiac mortality among patients with HBP and/or IHD, treated or untreated with OCM, who developed a first episode of acute coronary syndrome (ACS)., Methods: The study was carried out retrospectively and included patients admitted with a first episode of ACS between 2013 and 2016. The patients were divided into three groups: those with HBP, IHD, and a history of HBP + IHD. Patients were then divided into two subgroups: subgroup A consisted of patients undergoing optimal anti-ischemic and/or antihypertensive therapy, while subgroup B consisted of patients without OCM., Results: This analysis comprised 1096 patients. Mean age was 64.3 ± 18 years. There were 581 patients in subgroup A - 53%, and 515 patients in subgroup B - 47%. Total cardiac mortality was 9.98%, different depending on the groups and subgroups studied: HBP group total - 7%, subgroup A - 5.1%, significantly lower compared to subgroup B - 9.4% (p = 0.05); IHD group total - 12.2%, subgroup A - 9.07%, significantly lower compared to subgroup B - 15.8% (p = 0.05); HBP + IHD group total - 14.35%, subgroup A - 9.9%, significantly lower compared to subgroup B - 18.8% (p = 0.05)., Conclusions: The lack of OCM in patients with HBP and/or IHD is correlated to a significant increase in in-hospital cardiac mortality among patients who develop a first-episode ACS., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest: None of the authors has financial interest related to this study to disclose.