AIMS To investigate whether Annexin A5 (AnxA5) is related to hypertensive heart disease (HHD) and whether this relation is dependent of apoptosis. METHODS AND RESULTS Hypertensives without cardiac abnormalities (stage A), with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) (stage B), and with LVH and clinical manifestations of chronic HF (stage C), were studied. AnxA5 was quantified in endomyocardial bio...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to describe blood pressure responses during resistance exercise in hypertensive subjects and to determine whether an exercise protocol alters these responses. INTRODUCTION Resistance exercise has been recommended as a complement for aerobic exercise for hypertensive patients. However, blood pressure changes during this kind of exercise have been poorly inve...

To define the role played by various risk and behavioral factors in the increase of carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) observed in borderline hypertensives. Using B-mode ultrasonography, we compared 97 borderline hypertensives enrolled in the HARVEST study to 27 normotensive controls. Intima-media thickness was measured in the right and left common carotid artery, bulb, and internal carotid a...

To determine whether basal blood pressure or pressor responses to stress are related to sympathetic nerve tone or to psychological factors in hypertensives, 15 hypertensives and 13 normotensives were studied by mean of a self-administered questionnaire, isometric handgrip exercise (IHE), and the mental stress of serial subtraction. Plasma norepinephrine (NE), epinephrine (E), blood pressure (BP...

Hypertension is a risk factor for cognitive decline, but the mechanisms underlying the effects of hypertension on cognition, particularly in midlife, are unclear. We examined whether hypertension modifies genetic influences on individual differences in cognition. Nine cognitive domains and general cognitive ability were assessed in a sample of 1,237 male twins aged 51-60 who were divided into t...

This study was designed to assess whether ultrasonic reflectivity, evaluated by a real-time integrated backscatter analysis, was related to the severity of diastolic dysfunction, as studied by Doppler echocardiography in patients with essential hypertension. One hundred nine subjects were included in the study. Diastolic function was assessed by mitral-inflow Doppler ultrasound recordings. Back...

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the relationship of blood pressure variability (BPV) and heart rate variability (HRV) to investigate the effect of baroreflex function on blood pressure variability. Methods: This study consisted of 111 subjects, including 32 normotensives and 79 hypertensives. All the subjects were given two concurrent tests: 24-hour Holter ECG and ambulatory bloo...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the applicability of carotid Doppler echography for the assessment of changes of peripheral hemodynamics in the hypertensives. SUBJECTS 28 hypertensives (17 males, 11 females), mean age of 64 yrs and 40 normal controls (24 males, 16 females) mean age of 49 yrs. METHODS We recorded the right common carotid arterial Doppler flow velocity (BFV) pattern and measured the pe...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Most population-based studies indicate that a considerable proportion of hypertensive subjects are undertreated and that undertreatment is more prevalent among hypertensive men than among hypertensive women. The aim of our study was to investigate the consequences of undertreatment of hypertension for women and men in terms of stroke occurrence. METHODS Approximately 45...

The aim of the study was to investigate whether diverse clinical blood pressure phenotypes are associated with free leptin surrogates, as reflected by plasma leptin, human soluble leptin receptor, and their ratio (ie, free leptin index) in nonobese normoglycemic subjects. Three separate clinic blood pressure measurements and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring were implemented to divide 494 su...