BACKGROUND It was to study the effect of atorvastatin, pioglitazone and their combination on plasma levels of adhesion molecules in patients with hypertension or stable angina or both. METHODS It was an open-label, randomized parallel-group study. Forty-five atorvastatin-naive patients with hypertension or stable angina or both, were randomized to receive either atorvastatin (19 patients; 10 ...

High postprandial levels of TAG may further induce endothelial dysfunction and inflammation in subjects with high fasting levels of TAG, an effect that seems to be related to oxidative stress. The present study investigated whether minor compounds of olive oil with antioxidant activity decrease postprandial levels of soluble isoforms of intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (sICAM-1) and vascular c...

Serum concentrations of three angiogenic cytokines: vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and placental growth factor (PIGF) and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (sVCAM-1), were investigated in the serum of 61 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 20 healthy subjects. The possible association between serum levels of these protei...

The aim of this study was to investigate whether soluble adhesion molecule levels differ by ethnic group. Soluble plasma adhesion molecules [soluble P-selectin (sP-selectin), soluble E-selectin (sE-selectin), soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1)] were measured in 261 white (120 females), 188 African origin (99 females) and 2...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of ginger supplementation on serum glucose, advanced glycation end products, oxidative stress, and systemic and vascular inflammatory markers in patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD). METHODS In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 36 patients on PD were randomly assigned to either the ginger or the placebo grou...

BACKGROUND Relationship of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in HIV-infected patients remains controversial. We evaluated endothelial function and subclinical atherosclerosis in HIV-infected patients with and without HCV. METHODS Flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery and circulating levels of cell adhesion molecules (CAM) ...

Vitamin C may reduce inflammation and is inversely associated with mortality in the general population. We investigated the association of plasma vitamin C with all-cause mortality in renal transplant recipients (RTR); and whether this association would be mediated by inflammatory biomarkers. Vitamin C, high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), soluble intercellular cell adhesion molecule 1 (...

The aim of the present study was to identify any possible protective effects of wild greens on certain biochemical cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors in elderly women leaving in rural Crete. For the needs of the study a region with high consumption of wild greens (Avdou) and a region with low consumption (Anogia) were identified and a representative population from each area was recruite...