These data demonstrate a reversible Helicobacter pylori (HP)-induced interference with l-dopa clinical response related to the impaired drug absorption, probably due to active gastroduodenitis. Therefore, the authors suggest that HP eradication may improve the clinical status of infected patients with Parkinson disease and motor fluctuations by modifying l-dopa pharmacokinetics.

Diastolic cardiac function varies during pregnancy. A relationship between preload (left atrial enlargement), afterload (RI reduction), morphologic, and diastolic function modifications (IVRT reduction, DtE prolongation) appears to exist as a consequence of the hemodynamic modifications which occur during physiologic pregnancy. Diastolic function analysis maybe useful to identify women who fully adapt to pregnancy, and to understand the mechanisms that might be involved in women who show abnormal uterine artery Doppler waveforms.

Systemic signs of inflammation, similar to those found in atherosclerosis, are present in patients with degenerative aortic valve stenosis. They do not seem to be linked to C. pneumoniae or H. pylori infection.

Abstract-The objective of this study was to evaluate diastolic parameters and left ventricular geometry in gestational hypertension. Twenty-one consecutive pregnant women with gestational hypertension and 21 normotensive women matched for age and gestational age were enrolled in the third trimester of gestation. Echocardiographic and uterine color Doppler evaluations were performed. Systolic, diastolic, and mean blood pressure, total vascular resistance (TVR), and uterine resistance index were higher in hypertensive women than in control subjects (PϽ0.01 M aternal hemodynamic adaptation begins in the first trimester of pregnancy. 1-3 Cardiac output increases and diastolic function is modified according to a rise in preload, 4,5 a decreased afterload, 4,5 an increased compliance of the conduit vessels, 4,5 ventricular remodeling, 4,5 and a modification of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. 4,5 Cardiac output is increased as the result of enhanced myocardial performance. 6 Echocardiographic evaluation provides important information on both systolic and diastolic cardiac function. In particular, the analysis of transmitral and pulmonary vein flow patterns allows an evaluation of the diastolic left ventricular filling, 5,7 whereas M-mode, 2D, and Doppler echocardiography are used to assess systolic and morphological left ventricular modifications. 6,8 -11 In the past, it has been reported that cardiac output during normal pregnancy increases until mid gestation. The initial increase appears to be related to an increase in heart rate followed by an increase in stroke volume. 1,2 Nevertheless, few data on cardiac diastolic function during physiological pregnancy have been reported, 5,12,13 and no data on diastolic function during gestational hypertension exists.Moreover, although left ventricular geometric pattern based on left ventricular mass and relative wall thickness of the left ventricle has gained interest in hypertensive disease, 14 -16 no data concerning left ventricular geometric pattern during physiological and pathological pregnancy are available.For these reasons, this study was designed to evaluate diastolic parameters and left ventricular geometric pattern in a group of women with gestational hypertension. These data were compared with data collected from normotensive pregnant women.

The absence of a 'correct' maternal cardiovascular compensatory response to abnormal trophoblastic invasion, might be one of the factors that slowly determine the conditions of reduced placental perfusion and eventually of the development of fetal growth restriction.