Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 23, Issue 22, 2017

Background: Cardiovascular damage is clinically manifested as coronary artery disease, heart failure, stroke and peripheral artery disease. The prevalence of these adverse conditions is higher with advancing age. Although many patients present cardiovascular damage late in their life, it is common to see patients with early atherosclerosis in cardiovascular intensive care units at ages lower than 50 years in men and 55 for Read More

Background: Three types of necrosis characterize MI: coagulation necrosis, typically due to a coronarogenic mechanism, coagulative myocytolysis with formation of contract bands as an effect of sympathetic nervous system and adrenergic stimulation, and colliquative myocytolysis, characterized by myocardial fiber lysis, which is a close result of hydrolytic enzyme activity deriving from the material reaching the infar Read More

Background: Change in the architecture and composition of cardiac extracellular matrix is a key element in adverse cardiac remodeling that occurs during heart failure. Most of the times, the result is the development of fibrosis, which has a huge impact on the pathophysiology and clinical outcomes of heart failure syndromes. Several molecules related to collagen metabolism detectable in the blood have been proposed as Read More

Elevated homocysteine (Hcy) levels are predictors of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Hyperhomocysteinemia has also been associated with total and CVD mortality. However, whether Hcy is just a marker or plays a causal role in CVD remains to be elucidated. In this narrative review, we discuss the associations between Hcy and non-cardiac vascular diseases, namely stroke, peripheral artery disease (PAD), carotid artery disease, Read More

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) continues to be the major cause of death in the developed countries. Moreover, the cardiovascular risk factors leading towards the development of CVD, mainly type 2 diabetes and obesity, are on the rise. The current preventive and therapeutic management, centred on the control of traditional risk factors, is clearly not enough to stop this pandemic. Therefore, the search for ne Read More

Background: Environmental factors are a major cause of poor health worldwide. The most solid evidence is for air pollution, leading to increased disability-adjusted life years. Outdoor temperature and other seasonal climate changes may also influence cardiovascular health, according to their direct modulation of air pollution. Moreover, an increasing body of evidence associates environmental exposure to noise with poor cardi Read More

Background: Climate change is rapidly affecting all the regions of our planet. The most relevant example is global warming, which impacts on the earth’s ecosystems, threatening human health. Other effects include extreme variations in temperature and increases in air pollution. These events may negatively impact mortality and morbidity for cardiovascular diseases. Methods: In this review, we discuss the main effects of clima Read More

Background: Blood flow assessment is essential to fully understand cardiovascular function in disease pathologies and for identification of individuals at long-term risk of cardiovascular disease development. Qualitative and quantitative assessments of blood flow by imaging modalities have been limited, and much of the accurate quantification has relied on invasive measures. Methods: This review discusses how four-di Read More

Background: Among the novelties in the field of cardiovascular imaging, the construction of quantitative maps in a fast and efficient way is one of the most interesting aspects of the clinical research. Quantitative parametric maps are typically obtained by post processing dynamic images, that is, sets of images usually acquired in different temporal intervals, where several images with different contrasts are obtained. Magnetic Read More

Background: In the last decades, interventional cardiology has received fast and wide implementation as an effective alternative treatment to surgery for several congenital and acquired diseases. In this scenario, imaging provides solutions for most clinical needs, from diagnosis to prognosis and risk stratification, as well as anatomical and functional assessment. Methods: In this review article, we present recent inno Read More

The multidrug resistance (MDR) of tumor cells significantly reduces the efficiency of traditional anticancer therapy. Tumor MDR is complex and involves several mechanisms such as decreased drug uptake, increased drug efflux, enhanced drug exocytosis, increased drug detoxification and inactivation by drugmetabolizing enzymes, altered drug targets due to genetic and epigenetic modifications, altered DNA repair, and im Read More

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder which is characterized by inappropriate hyperglycemia. It is becoming an epidemic disease in developing countries. Diabetic patients are frequently afflicted with a vascular dysfunction and wound healing defect. In spite of intense investigations, over the past 2-3 decades, optimal treatment options and related mechanisms are still unclear. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are Read More

Background: Loss of olfaction can cause noticeable reduction in general quality of life. Only a small portion of patients with olfactory loss respond to current medications. Thus, development of novel therapeutic strategies seems to be necessary. Looking into traditional medical knowledge can be of great value in addressing useful remedies. Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM) has been practiced in Persia for more than 2000 years. Read More