Objective:To evaluate the effects of the consumption of energy drinks on cardiovascular parameters in a group of healthy young individuals.Methods:In a quasi-experimental study, 44 healthy adult participants aged between 15 and 30 years were evaluated. The blood pressure (BP) as well as electrocardiographic indices, including heart rate (HR), PR interval, QRS duration, corrected QT (QTc) interval, and ST-T changes were recorded before consumption of a caffeine-containing energy drink and at the specific time points over a 4-h test duration.Results:We found statistically significant HR decline (p=0.004) and more frequent ST-T changes (p=0.004) after the participants consumed the energy drink. However, readings for systolic BP (p=0.44), diastolic BP (p=0.26), PR interval (p=0.449), QRS duration (p=0.235), and QTc interval (p=0.953) showed no significant change post-consumption.Conclusion:In conclusion, we demonstrated that the consumption of energy drinks could contribute to HR decline and ST-T change in healthy young adults.

Backgrounds:In recent years, low levels of Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) have been suggested to be associated with higher risks of developing heart failure and higher long-term mortality rates following Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI). However, the effect of IGF-1 levels on short-term survival has been rarely studied. In this study we aimed to assess any possible association between serum IGF-1 concentration following AMI and short-term survival rates.Methods:In this study, serum total IGF-1 levels were measured in 56 patients within 24 hours following AMI and were compared to 56 individuals with no cardiovascular disease. Patients were followed up to death or discharge from hospital (median = 6 days) and survival curves were compared based on median IGF-1 value.Results:Mean (±SD) of serum IGF-1 levels were 232.73 ng/ml (±81.74) and 211.00 ng/ml (±58.22) in survived and expired patients respectively and the difference was not statistically significant (P value = 0.501). The difference between survival curves was also not statistically significant (P value = 0.246).Conclusion:According to findings of this study, serum total IGF-1 concentration does not seem to be associated with short-term survival rates.

Background:We aimed to prospectively investigate the changes in the electrocardiography (ECG) and the echocardiography of the patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) before and after treatment, and to evaluate the overall role of the findings on early patients' outcome.Methods: All consecutive patients with SAH were evaluated with onadmission ECG and echocardiography. For those with an abnormal result, a second evaluation was performed after the therapeutic interventions. All of the participants were followed until discharged or possibly expired in the hospital. Proper statistical methods were used to compare the changes between the two groups of the patients: the "expired" group, and the "discharged" group.Results: Of the total of 60 subjects, 25 (41.6%) and three (5%) had an abnormal ECG and echocardiography that were dropped to four (6.7%) and one (1.7%) after treatment, respectively. The most frequent ECG finding was T-wave inversion. Six subjects (10%) were expired in the hospital. Abnormal primary ECG was found in five out of the six dead subjects (83.3%) and 20 out of the 54 discharged ones (37%) (P = 0.029). None of the three patients with abnormal primary echocardiograms were expired during the hospitalization. Conclusion:Most SAH-induced changes in the ECG and the echocardiography are transient and reversible. Abnormal ECG is a good predictor of inpatient mortality, but abnormal echocardiography is not.

Renal artery stenosis (RAS) is the most prevalent cause of secondary hypertension (HTN). Percutaneous trans-luminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) is used for both diagnosis and treatment of RAS. As many as one third of RAS cases fail to demonstrate post-PTRA HTN improvement. In this study, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) was measured for consecutive patients with refractory HTN referred for renal artery angiography and 2 groups of participants (essential HTN and RAS) were compared. BNP was found significantly higher among RAS group than those with essential HTN (P <0.001) and had a good sensitivity (76%) to discriminate RAS from essential HTN. RAS cases also showed a statistically significant decline in BNP level (P <0.001) after PTRA. We concluded that BNP is increased in RAS before intervention, is declined after PTRA, and might be used both as a marker for discriminating RAS from essential refractory HTN and for post-PTRA follow-up.