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The aim of our prospective, randomised, controlled and open-label clinical study was to evaluate in healthy post-menopausal women the effects of raloxifene (RLX) on body fat distribution and lipids, and the correlations between these parameters. The fat distribution, by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, and lipids were evaluated at baseline and after 1 yr in 50 post-menopausal women: 25 were treated with RLX 60 mg/die, while 25 served as control group (CG). After 1 yr, we observed in RLX-users a slight reduction of fat mass in trunk and central region and an increase in legs and, in relation to CG, significantly lower values of adiposity in trunk and abdominal region (p < 0.05). At the same time, HDL-cholesterol (HDL-C) and apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1) were significantly increased in relation to baseline values and CG (p < 0.05) and apolipoprotein B (ApoB), total cholesterol/HDL-C, LDL cholesterol/ HDL-C, and ApoB/ApoA1 ratios significantly decreased compared to baseline values and CG (p < 0.05). No correlation was underlined among lipids and regional fat distribution. These results highlight the positive effect of RLX on lipids and suggest, for the first time, that RLX promotes the shift from android to gynoid fat distribution, and prevents the uptrend of abdominal adiposity and body weight compared with untreated women.

In conclusion, our study clearly demonstrates that warm CPB is associated with an increased ability to activate complement and neutrophils in patients undergoing coronary surgery.

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We studied 76 patients with congenital heart disease, whose ages ranged from 2 to 39 years. The following investigations were carried out pre-operatively and post-operatively in all patients : visual acuity, cycloplegic refraction, orthoptic examination, examination of the fundus. Where collaboration was sufficient the following were also studied: kinetic and static perimetry, adaptation perimetry, colour vision, electroretinography. There were no differences before and after operation of visual acuity, adaptation perimetry, refraction, electroretinography or of the fundus. Post-operative changes were only found in 4 of the 65 patients in whom perimetry was performed. By comparison, an identical study of patients with acquired heart disease showed the percentage of functional ocular changes to be higher in this group.Key w w h : heart -congenital heart disease -extracorporeal circulation.Of all the possible consequences of heart surgery, neurological and neurophthalmic complications cause the most problems post-operatively, despite the use of the most advanced techniques available. Many papers in the literature attempt to discover the underlying pathogenetic mechanism. Bass & Langmore (1969) regarded the following factors to be important in the aetiology-hypoxia causing inadequate