Our results for the first time show that ARD indexed to height is predictive of incident nonfatal and fatal cardiovascular events among middle-aged individuals in the community and support the view that assessment of ARD in addition to left ventricular mass may refine cardiovascular risk stratification and preventive strategies in the general population.

This study suggests that glycaemic variability influences endothelial function even in non-diabetic subjects. Such variability may explain the increased cardiovascular risk observed in patients prior to developing overt Type 2 diabetes.

ARD is a common phenotype in hypertensive patients, with men showing a markedly higher susceptibility, but office blood pressure values do not appear to be directly associated with aortic root diameter.

Background/Objectives: Coffee is known to contain antioxidant substances whose effects may be blunted because of caffeine that may unfavorably affect the cardiovascular system. This study was designed to investigate the acute dose-dependent effects of decaffeinated coffee (DC) on endothelial function measured by the brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD). Subjects/Methods: A total of 15 (8 men and 7 women) healthy nonobese subjects underwent a single-blind, crossover study. Subjects ingested one and two cups of decaffeinated Italian espresso coffee in random order at 5-to 7-day intervals. Results: In the hour following the ingestion of two cups of DC, FMD increased (mean±s.e.m.): 0 min, 7.4±0.7%; 30 min, 8.0 ± 0.6%; 60 min, 10.8 ± 0.8%; Po0.001) as compared to consumption of one cup of DC (0 min, 6.9 ± 0.7%; 30 min, 8.4±1.2%; 60 min, 8.5±1.1%; 3  2 repeated-measures analysis of variance: P ¼ 0.037 for time  treatment effect). Blood pressure did not differ between groups, and basal heart rate was lower in the two-cup group at baseline and 60 min. Conclusions:The present study demonstrated a significant acute favorable dose-dependent effect of decaffeinated espresso coffee on endothelial function. Further studies are needed to investigate the effects of chronic use of DC especially with respect to caffeinated coffee and in subjects with cardiovascular diseases.

Our data indicate that MS is associated with a higher risk of LVH and carotid atherosclerosis irrespective of gender; these findings do not support a gender influence in the association between MS and subclinical OD.

The knowledge and practice of breast self-examination (BSE) was investigated among 500 women with operable breast tumors between 35 and 64 years of age (all successively operated) and 652 healthy women, matched with the previous group for 5-year age groups from 35 to 54 years. Only 39.9% of breast cancer women and 34.5% of the controls practiced BSE, starting from 45 years, and it is used less frequency by the women with a poor education and those in a lower economic bracket. Among the 500 breast cancer patients, those who practiced the self-examination had a higher number of tumors with a diameter no greater than 2 cm and a lower number with a diameter larger than 4 cm. In addition, in this group the percentage of unaffected axillary lymph nodes (N-) was 58.8% compared to 48.8% for the group that did not practice self-examination, and the percentage of the cases with more than 3 metastatic lymph nodes (N+ greater than 3) was 20.0% in the first group and 27.3% of the second one. These differences were statistically significant. The correlation between tumor diameter and the histologic lymph node stage is equally evident, since there is a progressive reduction in N- cases and a contemporary progressive increase in N+ (greater than 3) cases with increasing breast tumor diameter. Therefore, we can infer that the lack of practice of BSE causes a diagnostic and therapeutic delay, which is responsible for aggravation of the prognosis.

Our findings suggest the relationship between cardiac hypertrophy and diastolic function in hypertensive subjects is affected by aging-associated factors unrelated to the amount of LV mass as assessed by standard echocardiography.

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