Inflammation is correctly blamed as one of the root causes of both acute and chronic pain—and more. Not only does chronic inflammation underlie disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and other autoimmune diseases, it has also been implicated in the pathogenesis of cancer, chronic heart failure, and neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases....

Approximately one in one hundred children is born with congenital heart disease. Most can be managed with corrective or palliative surgery but a small group will develop severe heart failure, leaving cardiac transplantation as the ultimate treatment option. Unfortunately, due to the inadequate number of available donor organs, only a small number of patients can benefit from this therapy, and m...

BACKGROUND Reactivity of the autonomic nervous system to experimental pain stimuli has been extensively studied using measures of heart rate and blood pressure. Heart rate variability (HRV) attempts to tease out the relative contributions of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity in the autonomic control of the heart and may therefore be more appropriate to investigate autonomic response to s...

background: heart failure is one of the chronic heart diseases and a debilitating condition of increased prevalence in the elderly. one of the important and non‑pharmacological strategies for improving clinical outcomes in these patients is promotion of the self‑care. background and social environment in which a patient is trying to control his disease is an important factor in the self‑care. t...

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is characterized by irreversible airflow limitation in the lungs. COPD frequently coexist with Heart Failure (HF) but most patients go undiagnosed because of similarity symptoms. Data on prevalence HF are discrepant and scarce.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is characterized by irreversible airflow limitation in the lungs. COPD frequently coexist with Heart Failure (HF) but most patients go undiagnosed because of similarity symptoms. Data on prevalence HF are discrepant and scarce.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is characterized by irreversible airflow limitation in the lungs. COPD frequently coexist with Heart Failure (HF) but most patients go undiagnosed because of similarity symptoms. Data on prevalence HF are discrepant and scarce.

A 54 years old male with undiagnosed chronic calcific degenerative aortic valve incompetence presented with acute left anterior chordae tendinae rupture resulting in severe left heart failure and cardiogenic shock. He was successfully treated with emergency double valve replacement using mechanical valves. The pathogenesis of acute rupture of the anterior chordae tendinae, without any evidence ...

BACKGROUND Cardiac cachexia is a syndrome of generalised wasting which caries a poor prognosis and is associated with raised plasma concentrations of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha). TNFalpha increases secretion of leptin, a hormone which decreases food intake and increases energy expenditure. OBJECTIVE To determine whether an inappropriate increase in plasma leptin concentration cont...