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Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

We investigated correlation between the normal level of air pollution, weather conditions and stroke occurrence in the region of Southeast Europe with a humid continental climate. This retrospective study included 1963 patients, 1712 (87.2%) with ischemic (IS) and 251 (12.8%) with hemorrhagic stroke (HS) admitted to emergency department. The number of patients, values of weather condition (meteorological parameters) [air temperature (°C), atmospheric pressure (kPa), relative humidity (%)] and concentrations of air pollutants [particulate matter (PM 10 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), ozone (O 3 )], were recorded and evaluated for each season (spring, summer, autumn, winter) during 2 years (July 2008-June 2010). The highest rate of IS was observed during spring (28.9%) (p = 0.0002) and HS in winter (33.9%) (p = 0.0006). We have found negative Spearman's correlations (after Bonferroni adjustment for the multiple correlations) of the number of males with values of relative humidity (%) (day 0, rho = - 0.15), the total number of strokes (day 2, rho = - 0.12), females (day 2, rho = - 0.12) and IS (day 2, rho = - 0.13) with concentrations of PM 10 (µg/m 3 ), as well as negative correlations of the number of females (day 2, rho = - 0.12) and IS (day 2, rho = - 0.12) with concentrations of NO 2 (µg/m 3 ) (for all p < 0.002). In winter, the number of HS (day 0, rho = 0.25, p = 0.001) positively correlated with concentrations of O 3 (µg/m 3 ). The appearance of stroke has seasonal variations, with the highest rates during spring and winter. Positive correlation between the number of HS and values of O 3 requires an additional reduction of the legally permitted pollutants concentrations.

Introduction: The interrelation between metabolic syndrome (MetS) (the revised National Cholesterol Education Program-Adult Treatment Panel III (NCEP-ATP III) and International Diabetes Federation (IDF)) and obesity indices in predicting clinical severity and prognosis of acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is insufficiently known., Material and Methods: This prospective study included 250 acute STEMI patients treated with primary percutaneous coronary intervention. The patients with/without MetS were analyzed by baseline (medical history, demography and obesity indices: overall - body mass index (BMI) vs.central - body adiposity index (BAI), conicity index (Cindex), visceral adiposity index (VAI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR)), severity (clinical presentation, laboratory, echocardiography, coronary angiography and in-hospital complications) and prognostic parameters (major adverse cardiovascular events and sick leave duration during 12-month follow-up)., Results: There were 136 (54.4%) and 147 (58.8%) patients with MetS (NCEP-ATP III) and MetS (IDF), respectively. MetS (NCEP-ATP III) increased the risk of > 1 significantly stenosed coronary artery (CA), very high BAI increased the risk of dyspnea, Cindex > 1.25/1.18 increased the risk of total in-hospital complications, increased VAI increased the risk of coronary segment 3 significant stenosis, WHR ≥ 0.90/0.85 increased the risk of proximal/middle coronary segments (especially of segment 1) significant stenosis, WHtR ≥ 63/58 increased the risk of heart failure, and the number of significantly stenosed CAs increased the risk of total MACE ( p < 0.05)., Conclusions: MetS (NCEP-ATP III) and several central obesity indices are superior to BMI in predicting acute STEMI severity (clinical presentation, in-hospital complications, severity of coronary disease), while WC and MetS (IDF) have no influence on it. They all have no influence on prognosis.