Heavy cigarette smoking has negative effect on autonomic function. HRT is an appropriate noninvasive method to evaluate the effect of cigarette on autonomic function. Simultaneous abnormal HRT and HRV values may explain increased cardiovascular event risk in heavy cigarette smokers.

Our findings show that, despite preserved left ventricular systolic functions, both systolic and diastolic functions of the right ventricle deteriorate in MetS patients.

Treatment with EPO significantly inhibits the LPS-induced secretion of midkine and TNF-alpha regardless of the dosage. The data presented here provide the first evidence to indicate that EPO treatment directly reverses some of the cytotoxic and secretory effects of LPS in mononuclear cells. Inhibition of midkine secretion might be responsible for the anti-inflammatory role of EPO.

Our results showed that serum ADMA activity is higher in patients with severe aortic valve stenosis. ADMA activity is positively correlated with aortic valve stenosis severity. Serum ADMA level may be used as a precious marker to evaluate and follow up the severity of aortic valve stenosis.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is still among the major causes of mortality and morbidity especially in the developed countries. There are two treatment modalities: primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) and thrombolytic therapy (TT). The Tei Index (Myocardial Performance Index) has become a valuable echocardiograhic index for assessment of global systolic and diastolic function. TDI Tei index correlates with pulsed wave measurements. 1,2 Tei index provides prognostic information in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, cardiac amyloidosis, acute myocardial infarction congenital heart disease and primary pulmonary hypertension. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Increased Tei index is a strong predictor of mortality and morbidity after acute myocardial infarction. [9][10][11] Duan Y et al. demonstrated that RV TDI Tei index correlated well with the Tei index obtained by pulsed Doppler in fetuses. This demonstrated that RV TDI Tei index is a simple and valuable method of assessing RV global function even in seldom evaluated subjects such as fetuses. 12 Even if the right ventrincle has not faced ischemia it may be affected by left ventricle ischemia. In the GISSI-3 Echo Substudy, RV function deteriorated in acute MI patients and RV function recovery over time ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Our findings suggest that serum Tβ4 levels are significantly associated with the collateral development in severe CAD.

Pmax and P-wave dispersion increase in prehypertensive patients compared with normotensive patients. This data might show increased risk of AF in prehypertension.

Our results showed that ADMA activity was higher in patients with saphenous vein graft disease. Increased ADMA activity might lead to the acceleration of saphenous vein graft disease. ADMA may be a precious marker for detecting late saphenous vein graft patency.