Headache: Prevalence and relationship with office or ambulatory blood pressure in a general population sample (the Vobarno Study).

The association of headache and arterial hypertension is still controversial, although headache is usually considered a symptom of hypertension. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of headache in a general population sample and the relationship with arterial hypertension, as diagnosed by office measurements and ambulatory monitoring of blood pressure (BP).In the randomized sample of the Vobarno population, 301 subjects (126 males, 175 females, age range 35-50 years) underwent a structured standardized headache questionnaire, office and 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring.Prevalence of lifetime headache and of migraine was greater in females than in males. Office and 24-h BP values did not differ between subjects without headache and subjects with headache. No differences in headache prevalence (58% vs 55%), migraine prevalence (32% vs 28%) and use of analgesic drugs in the presence of headache (82% vs 78%) were observed between hypertensive patients (93.5% newly diagnosed, 6.5% treated) and normotensive subjects.In a general population sample, hypertension (diagnosed by office and/or 24-h BP) is not associated with headache

Giardino Arido, Parco Da Vinci - Le saline, Fiumicino (Roma)

Il progetto è stato redatto con l'obiettivo di ridurre il consumo d'acqua, adattandosi anche all'elevata salinità del luogo. Una sequenza di colline, realizzate per attenuare la percezione delle vicine infrastrutture e per alzare il livello colturale diventa il supporto per la vegetazione arbustiva della fascia climatica mediterranea

Myocardial ultrasound tissue characterization in patients with chronic renal failure

The objective of this study was to detect ultrastructural changes in myocardium related to collagen content by ultrasound tissue characterization in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and in uncomplicated hypertensive control subjects. In 25 hemodialysis (HD) patients, in 25 patients with moderate to severe chronic renal failure (CRF), and in 10 patients with essential hypertension (EH) and normal renal function matched for age, BP, and left ventricular mass index, left ventricular anatomy and function were evaluated by conventional echocardiography, and integrated backscatter signal (IBS) was analyzed by acoustic densitometry. IBS mean reflectivity increased from 48% in patients with EH to 56% in patients with CRF to 62% in HD patients (ANOVA P < 0.01). IBS mean cyclic variation was progressively increased from 4.35 1.2 dB in HD patients to 5.27 0.90 in patients with CRF to 6.50 1.6 dB in patients with EH (ANOVA P < 0.01). At multivariate analysis, IBS mean reflectivity was positively related to age and serum creatinine ( 0.351, P 0.036; and 0.408, P 0.016, respectively). IBS mean cyclic variation was inversely related to age and serum creatinine ( 0.274, P 0.025; and 0.262, P 0.025, respectively) and positively related to left ventricular midwall fractional shortening and transmitral E/A ratio ( 0.269, P < 0.05; and 0.314, P < 0.001, respectively). The data support the hypothesis that interstitial collagen deposition may appear early in the course of CKD and suggest that acoustic densitometry may represent a useful tool for the assessment of myocardial tissue changes in patients with CKD