In patients with DCM, LA volume is associated with LV remodeling, diastolic dysfunction, and the degree of MR. The maximal volume of the LA has an independent and incremental prognostic value, compared with all its determinants.

Annually these programmes screen approximately 1,600,000 newborns for CF and over 400 affected infants are recognised. The findings of this survey will guide the development of European evidence based guidelines and may help new regions or nations in the development and implementation of NBS for cystic fibrosis.

Spironolactone improves LV volumes and function; furthermore, it improves exercise tolerance at the highest administered dose. Our data might explain the mortality reduction during aldosterone antagonism in patients with HF.

Laparoscopic nerve-sparing complete excision of endometriosis seems to be feasible and offers good results in terms of bladder morbidity reduction with apparently higher satisfaction than classical technique. Larger series with longer follow-up are needed to confirm our results.

No abstract

Midregional proANP is an independent predictor of mortality in patients with chronic HF. Midregional proANP adds prognostic information to NT-proBNP.

Skeletal muscle mass is an independent predictor of peak Vo2 and VE/VCo2 slope in stable noncachectic patients with CHF. Future studies will determine whether an increase in skeletal muscle mass in the individual patient might result in an improvement in parameters of exercise capacity.

Airway inflammation is a characteristic of asthma. Exhaled nitric oxide (eNO) has been demonstrated to be related to actual levels of airway inflammation in asthmatic patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the temperature of exhaled air is related to eNO levels.Temperature of exhaled air and eNO were measured in 52 asthmatic children with a cross-sectional design.A significant relationship was demonstrated between eNO and temperature of peak and plateau exhaled air temperature. The relationship between both the peak and the plateau values and eNO was more evident when it was corrected for environmental temperature.These results suggest a relationship between exhaled nitric oxide and the temperature of exhaled air in asthmatic patients not treated with systemic steroids.