Relationship between systolic time intervals and arterial blood pressure.

It has been suggested that systolic time intervals (STI) can be used to monitor the cardiac effects of antihypertensive treatments and also to evaluate hypertensive patients. STI changes observed in hypertensives have been ascribed to myocardial disease, although they could be due to the existence of a relationship between STI and blood pressure. A group of 37 subjects (18 normotensives and 19 hypertensives) with no signs of heart failure and left ventricular dysfunction were studied to examine the relationship of STI to blood pressure. Pacing with an external battery pulse generator was performed at the rate of 95 beats/min in order to eliminate differences in heart rate. STI were measured from good quality high speed (100 mm/s) recordings and the average value of 10 consecutive cardiac cycles was used for statistical analysis. Normal subjects showed significantly lower values of pre-ejection period (PEP), electromechanical systole (QS2), and pre-ejection period/left ventricular ejection time ratio (PEP/LVET). Moreover, a significant inverse relationship between diastolic pressure and LVET and significant direct relationships between diastolic pressure and PEP, systolic pressure and PEP, diastolic pressure and PEP/LVET, and between systolic pressure and PEP/LVET were demonstrated. We suggest to consider the relation of STI to blood pressure to provide regression equations to best appreciate and use STI

Meiofauna and nematode diversity in some Mediterranean subtidal areas of the Adriatic and Ionian Sea

Sediments of three different subtidal areas (15-705 m depth) of the Italian coasts (Manfredonia, Brindisi and Gallipoli) were investigated to study meiofauna and nematode composition. The nematodes were identified to the genus level and their abundances compared using multivariate analysis. Our data showed an evident depth gradient in meiofauna abundance: the shallowest sites had more diverse and abundant meiobenthic communities than the deeper ones. Nematodes were the dominant taxon (83-100%) at all sites, followed by Copepoda (0.5-8%). Sabatieria, Astomonema, Dorylaimopsis, Terschellingia and Daptonema were among the dominant nematode genera in the three areas. Nematode genus H’ diversities were not significantly dissimilar, though at community level some differences were detected among the study areas. The greatest differences were observed in the comparison of the communities from Manfredonia and Gallipoli. Furthermore, there was a difference between shallow (Astomonema, Dorylaimopsis, Sabatieria and Terschellingia)

Cambios en aceites de oliva usados como coberturas en la conservación de berenjenas (Solanum Melongena) en relación con el tiempo y las condiciones de almacenamiento

The use of the extra virgin olive oil as covering in food preserves presents some problems and still today object of study. With this research it was investigate the changes of some analytical parameters that occur during the storage in the olive oils used as covering in eggplant preserves. It was ascertained that in the oils in presence of the eggplants a drastic decrease of the total phenols was verified immediately after the thermal treatment affecting the oxidative processes. Besides it was observed that in all the oils stored under light the values of the K270. ΔK, the total chlorophylls and the 1,2-DG36/1,3-DG36 ratio were significantly changed.El uso de aceite de oliva virgen extra como cobertura en conservas alimentarias presenta una serie de problemas que son todavía hoy objeto de estudio. El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar los cambios de algunos parámetros analíticos producidos durante el almacenamiento en aceite de oliva usado como cobertura en la conservación de berenjenas. Se encontró que el aceite que ha estado en contacto con las berenjenas, sufrió una disminución de los fenoles totales inmediatamente después del tratamiento térmico, afectando a los procesos oxidativos. Se observó asimismo, que en todos los aceites almacenados a la luz variaron significativamente los valores del K270, del ΔK, de la clorofila y de la proporción de 1,2-DG36/1,3- DG36