Objective: Adiponectin may play an important role in the interplay between metabolic changes and cardiovascular risks. Our aim was to establish if plasma adiponectin can be used to detect the metabolic syndrome (MetS) in women without a history of major cardiovascular events and to evaluate its correlation with the global cardiovascular risk expressed by the Reynolds risk score (RRS). Methods: 148 consecutive women without a history of cardiovascular

We report a case of a young woman with an extensive, recurrent deep vein thrombosis (DVT) diagnosed by CT scan and duplex ultrasound examination. All blood investigations for etiology of recurrent DVT were normal except for serum homocysteine level, which was mildly increased. No other thrombophilic factors could be found. The three main causes of hyperhomocysteinemia are genetic defects, nutritional deficiencies and insufficient elimination. In

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most prevalent and complex inflammatory diseases affecting primarily the joints, but also associating several extra-articular features. The vascular disease in RA encompasses a large spectrum of lesions, from rheumatoid vasculitis to atherosclerotic lesions. During the last years the importance of the vascular disease related to atherosclerosis in terms of cardiovascular morbidity and global mortality became

OBJECTIVE: Cardiac toxicity remains an important side effect of anthracyclines. New drug formulations (eg, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin [PL-DOX]) seem to be a successful strategy for reducing it. Changes in cardiac function induced by early chemotherapy, however, are subtle and difficult to quantitate by conventional imaging methods. Doppler myocardial imaging-based velocity, strain, and strain rate measurements have been shown to sensitively