BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Smoking is a major public health challenge and an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. No previous studies have evaluated the association among smoking, heart rate, and ischemic stroke in an Inner Mongolian population. We aim to evaluate the cumulative effect of smoking and heart rate on ischemic stroke incidence in this population. METHODS A prospective c...

This study was aimed at evaluating early and long-term follow-up results of surgical reconstruction of infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). A consecutive series of 392 patients who underwent elective abdominal aortic repair from 1974 to 2000 was reviewed retrospectively. The mean age was 69.8 years (range 34-90), with 329 males and 63 females. The hospital mortality rate was 3.8% (15/39...

Background:It is well known that collateral circulation has important roles in ischemic heart diseases. The method most commonly used at present to evaluate collateral flow is coronary angiography. However, there are debates about the functional significance of angiographically visible collaterals because angiography visualizes only vessels that are larger than 100um in diameter. Recent studies...

The complex problem of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) related to systemic arterial hypertension (H) has motivated several experimental, clinical and epidemiological studies. Because LVH is an important predisposing factor for heart failure 1 and because it is physiopathologically related to ischemic heart disease and ventricular arrhythmias, hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy is an i...

Our present focus on the hypoxic immature heart is driven by clinical urgency: cyanotic congenital cardiac malformations remain the single largest cause of mortality from congenital defects and ischemic heart disease is no more the disease of the fifth and older decades but its origin as well as risk factors are present already during early ontogeny. Moreover, the number of adult patients opera...