Twenty-one patients with cerebral arteriosclerosis were treated for twelve months with placebo or cyclandelate (Cyclospasmol), 400 mg four times daily, in a double-blind study with medication cross-over after six months. The group included 8 men and 13 women, with a mean age of 69 years. Each patient showed at least 5 of 9 signs or symptoms adopted as "inclusion criteria" for the study. Concomitant psychotropic or other drug therapy was standardized or matched during the trial, and periodic assessments were made of the patients' behavioral, physical, neurologic and psychiatric status. No serious side effects were observed. There was no significant difference between the cyclandelate and placebo phases in measurements of physical state. Changes on the gross behavior scales were insufficient for analysis. Tests of memory, control of manual dexterity and comprehension of everyday situations showed statistically significant improvement during the cyclandelate phase. In contrast to placebo, no measurable intellectual decline occurred during cyclandelate therapy.

CONTEXT:

Growing evidence demonstrates that hyperparathyroidism is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, little is known about the relation between serum PTH levels within the normal range and cardiovascular diseases (CVD).

OBJECTIVE:

In this study the relationship of serum PTH levels within the normal range with CVD and abdominal aortic calcifications was investigated.

DESIGN:

A cross-sectional, population-based study was performed using data of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam, including 558 men and 537 women, aged 65-88 years. Models were controlled for sex, age, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption, glomerular filtration rate, season of blood collection, calcium or diuretic use, and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and osteocalcin levels when these variables were found to be relevant confounders.

RESULTS:

Multivariate models showed that subjects in the highest quintile of serum PTH had a significantly higher risk of CVD as compared with subjects in the lowest quintile (odds ratio 2.22, confidence interval 1.39-3.56). The relationship between PTH and abdominal aortic calcifications was observed only in men, which remained significant after adjusting for confounders (odds ratio 4.03, confidence interval 1.50-10.83).

CONCLUSIONS:

This study demonstrated that in older persons the presence of serum PTH levels within the upper normal range is highly related to CVD. In men, this association may partly be explained by calcifications of the abdominal aorta. Because CVD poses an important health risk, further elucidation of the role of serum PTH in CVD and arteriosclerosis is relevant.

A portable instrument for arteriosclerosis assessment containing sensor module, acquisition board and embedded module was developed for home care in this paper. The sensor module consists of one ECG module and three pulse wave extraction modules, synchronously acquiring human ECG and pulse wave signal of carotid, radial, and dorsal, respectively. The acquisition board converts the sensor module's analog output signals into digital signals and transmits them to the embedded module. The embedded module realizes the functions including signal display, storage and the calculation and output of pulse wave velocity. The structure of the proposed portable instrument is simple, easy to use, and easy to expand. Small size, low cost, and low power consumption are also the advantages of this device. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed portable instrument for arteriosclerosis assessment has high accuracy, good repeatability and can assess the degree of atherosclerosis appropriately.

Noninvasive screening of subclinical atherosclerosis is possible with ultrasonic biopsy (UB) performed with high resolution ultrasound scanning. Five UB classes have been identified, each class corresponding to a different incidence of cardiovascular events (CVE) in 4 years and silent coronary ischemia (SCI). In a study including 2230 asymptomatic subjects 3 risk groups were defined. In the low risk group (class I and II; 82.01% of the population sample) the incidence of CVE and SCI was zero. These subjects may be seen again after 3 years. In the moderate risk group (class II and IV; 13.3%) monitoring and early intervention may be needed. In the high risk group (class V; 4.6%) prophylaxis or treatment may be necessary. The screening is effective, simple and may be organised at very low cost--i.e. 30.000 asymptomatic subjects may be scanned at the cost of 100.000 ECU. Each scan, including carotid and femoral bifurcations, may be performed in 15 minutes. In our communities this cost is equivalent to the average cost of a single major stroke or major coronary ischemic event in a working adult aging between 45 and 60. Organization problems and the fragmentation of competences has prevented the evolution of atherosclerosis screening. The problem can be solved organising a network including epidemiologists, angiologists and cardiovascular surgical centres where all phases of atherosclerosis may be studied and detected, progression prevented and complications treated with a global vision of the disease.

On the basis of clinical diagnostic criterion of cerebral arteriosclerosis, we selected, 72 patients with cerebral arteriosclerosis, 72 patients with suspected cerebral arteriosclerosis and 70 healthy individuals and screened 42 variables obtained from clinical and accessory examination with a stepwise discriminant analysis and a stepwise regression analysis. Finally we performed a logistic discriminant analysis of 15 selected variables in order to establish diagnostic discriminant formulas, Ya and Yc. It was found that a diagnostic coincidence rate for rediscriminant analysis of 212 individuals with the formulas was 100%. Very high sensitivity (96.7%), specificity (100%), positive predicted value (100%), negative predicted value (83.3%) and accuracy (97.1%) were noted in a prospective double-blind test on 34 subjects. The authors suggest that the discriminant formulas Ya and Yc established for diagnosis of cerebral arteriosclerosis be widely applicated.

The association of psychosocial stress with cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still inconclusive. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships between arteriosclerosis and various work-related conditions among medical employees with various job titles.A total of 576 medical employees of a regional hospital in Taiwan with a mean age of 43 years and female gender dominance (85%) were enrolled. Arteriosclerosis was evaluated by brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV). Workrelated conditions included job demands, job control, social support, shift work, work hours, sleep duration, and mental health. The crude relationship between each of the selected covariates and baPWV was indicated by Spearman correlation coefficients. A multiple linear regression model was further employed to estimate the adjusted associations of selected covariates with arteriosclerosis.The mean baPWV of participants was 11.4 ± 2.2 m/s, with the value for males being significantly higher than that for females. The baPWV was associated with gender, age, medical profession, work hours, work type, depression, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, fasting glucose, and cholesterol. After being fully adjusted by these factors, only sleep duration of less than 6 hours and weekly work hours longer than 60 hours were significantly associated with increased risk of arteriosclerosis. The conditions of job demands, job control, social support, shift work, and depression showed no significant association with baPWV.Longer work hours and shorter sleep durations were associated with an increased risk of arteriosclerosis. These findings should make it easier for the employer or government to stipulate rational work hours in order to avoid the development of cardiovascular disease among their employees.

Surprisingly enough, insulin has recently been suspected of promoting cardiovascular complications provided it becomes effective in excess concentrations at the vascular walls. This applies to both endogenous hyperinsulinemia and insulin substitution performed exogenously with high insulin doses. Several large population studies in non-diabetics--carried out in Helsinki, Busselton and Paris--proved recently that serum insulin concentration is an independent risk predictor for the occurrence of coronary heart disease. According to in-vitro trials, insulin stimulates the proliferation of the smooth muscle cells in vascular media and the lipid synthesis as well as lipid incorporation into the vascular wall. Very recent large-scale population studies in randomly selected type II-diabetics (the Schwabing Study and one performed at Oxford) have revealed a close association between endogenous hyperinsulinemia respectively high exogenous insulin requirement on the one hand and the risk of macroangiopathy or coronary heart disease on the other.

A 62-year-old man suffering intermittent claudication had 20 infusions of EDTA in a double blind, placebo controlled trial. No effect on symptoms or systolic ankle/brachial blood pressure index was found. Following the trial, he received 30 further infusions of EDTA in a private clinic. The systolic ankle/brachial index was unchanged throughout the total period as measured in Hillerød Central Hospital. However, the private clinic found a significant increase in the index following EDTA treatment. The reason for this discrepancy could be poor technique in the clinic or it could be due to bias or manipulation. The discrepancy explains the difference between the positive results claimed by the private EDTA clinics and the results of the double blind placebo controlled Danish trial.

The major risk factors of arteriosclerosis obliterans(ASO) in diabetic patients are age, male gender, smoking, poor glycemic control, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Thus, to prevent the development and progression of ASO, intensive intervention in the risk factors should be required. HOPE study reported that treatment of ACE-inhibitor in the patients with ASO for 5 years clearly decreased the relative risk for incidence of cardiovascular events comparing with the placebo group. Furthermore, UKPDS Group demonstrated that the adjusted odds ratios to the development of ASO for each 1% HbA1c increase and each 10 mmHg systolic blood pressure increase were respectively 1.28 and 1.25 from multivariate analysis. However, optimal levels of HbA1c and blood pressure for prevention of ASO still have not been suggested. Therefore, large-scale intervention trial in Japanese diabetic subjects should be needed.

There is a paucity of information on radiation-induced coronary heart disease. A young patient with myocardial infarction following mediastinal irradiation is described. The role of radiotherapy and chemotherapy on the subsequent development of coronary heart disease is discussed.