In patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) the intensity of aerobic training is limited by dyspnea. Improving strength of the inspiratory muscles could enhance aerobic exercise training by reducing exercise-related dyspnea. We examined effects of home-based inspiratory muscle training (IMT) and cycle ergometry training (CET) in 53 patients with moderate to severe COPD (FEV(1)...

BACKGROUND Biomarkers of carotid atherosclerosis range from those that are widely available and relatively simple to measure such as serum cholesterol levels, and B-mode Ultrasound measurement of intima media thickness (IMT) to those that are more complex and technologically demanding but perhaps potentially more sensitive and specific to disease such as total plaque volume and total plaque are...

Background and Purpose—Vascular remodeling as depicted by increases in arterial lumen diameter occurs in response to development of atherosclerosis. However, data on the correlates of arterial lumen diameter in younger adults by race and sex are limited. Methods—The study cohort included 734 white and 306 black subjects, aged 20 to 43 years, enrolled in the Bogalusa Heart Study. The common caro...

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) is an uncommon benign tumor of intermediate neoplastic potential, characterised by spindle cell proliferation with characteristic fibroinflammatory and pseudosarcomatous appearance. A subset of IMT with histologic atypia and/or clinical aggressiveness is also known. IMTs occur in the mesentery, omentum, retroperitoneum, pelvis, and abdominal soft tissues...

The effect of hypoglycemia on the progression of atherosclerosis in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remains largely unknown. This is a post hoc analysis of a randomized trial to investigate the relationship between hypoglycemic episodes and changes in carotid intima-media thickness (IMT). Among 274 study subjects, 104 patients experienced hypoglycemic episodes. Increases in the me...

BACKGROUND Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are involved in the endothelium repair. Low circulating EPC levels are predictive of cardiovascular events in HIV-negative subjects. The impact of HIV infection on EPCs, and the role of EPCs in HIV-associated cardiovascular disease, is not known. We hypothesized that circulating EPCs would be inversely associated with carotid artery intima-media th...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) is a surrogate marker of subclinical atherosclerosis and a strong predictor of stroke and myocardial infarction. The object of this study was to determine the association between carotid IMT and 702 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 145 genes. METHODS B-mode carotid ultrasound was performed among 408 Hispanics from the Northern Manh...