Intensive renal support in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury did not decrease mortality, improve recovery of kidney function, or reduce the rate of nonrenal organ failure as compared with less-intensive therapy involving a defined dose of intermittent hemodialysis three times per week and continuous renal-replacement therapy at 20 ml per kilogram per hour. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00076219.)

NARIN, A. Is There a Link between Nickel Allergy and Coronary Stent Restenosis?Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2005, 206 (3), [243][244][245][246] Although many patients with coronary artery disease are being treated by coronary stents, in-stent restenosis is the major limitation of percutaneous coronary stenting procedures. Most stents are made of stainless steel, and that, allergic reactions to nickel ions released from coronary stainless-steel stents may be one of the triggering mechanisms for in-stent restenosis. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between in-stent restenosis and nickel allergy in a prospective study. For this purpose, we applied epicutaneous patch test for nickel in 43 patients who had undergone elective intracoronary stent placement for stable angina pectoris in the day following stent placement and evaluated the presence of nickel allergy. Control angiography was performed at 6 months to determine in-stent restenosis. Three (6.9%) patients had allergic reaction to nickel and 16 (37%) patients had developed in-stent restenosis. One of the 3 patients with nickel allergy had diffuse in-stent restenosis and the others not. The present study therefore does not support the proposed relationship between nickel allergy and development of in-stent restenosis in patients having stainless steel stents. Large scale studies are needed to reach a final conclusion. coronary stenting; in-stent restenosis; metal allergy; nickel; patch test

No abstract

Drug-induced AV block is a serious disease that requires a permanent PM for almost half of the patients.

Metabolic syndrome (MS) and nondipping hypertension both increase cardiovascular mortality. Although both clinical modalities share common pathophysiologic factors in their etiologies, previous studies did not find any association between them. We aimed to investigate the association between MS and non-dipping blood pressure by comparing different definitions of MS. One hundred-thirty-two consecutive patients (58 men) who underwent 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring were analyzed. MS was evaluated according to the currently used Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III definition criteria, named MS-ATP III. In order to reveal the weights of risk contributing to MS, a new diagnostic scoring method (MS-Score) was used in comparison with MS-ATP III. Nocturnal non-dipping refers to a reduction in average systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure at night ( 10%) compared with daytime average values. Non-dipping pattern was found in 61.4% of patients. The frequency of MS according to MS-Score, but not MS ATP III, was significantly higher in patients with nondipping pattern than those without it ( p = 0.009). Although more prominent in the nighttime, MS-Score showed positive correlation with all systolic blood pressure results (r = 0.27, p = 0.002). Adjusted for baseline characteristics, high ( 27.5) MS-Score remained as an independent predictor of non-dipping pattern (OR 2.64, p = 0.038). Finally, high MS-Score, but not MS-ATP III, is a predictor of non-dipping pattern. Nighttime systolic blood pressure is higher in patients with high MS-Score. Therefore, patients with high MS-Score may be more prone to cardiovascular events than those with low MSScore.circadian blood pressure variation; hypertension; metabolic syndrome score; metabolic syndrome adult treatment panel III; non-dipping pattern