Biomedical subjects

A Synetos

Publications and source records attributed to A Synetos.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

CLimate Impacts on Myocardial infarction deaths in the Athens TErritory: the CLIMATE study.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of meteorological variables on daily and monthly deaths caused by acute myocardial infarction (AMI). METHODS: All death certificate data from the Athens territory were analysed for AMI deaths in 2001. Daily atmospheric temperature, pressure and relative humidity data were obtained from the National Meteorological Society for Athens for the same year. RESULTS: The total annual number of deaths caused by AMI was 3126 (1953 men) from a population of 2,664,776 (0.117%). Seasonal variation in deaths was significant, with the average daily AMI deaths in winter being 31.8% higher than in summer (9.89 v 7.35, p < 0.001). Monthly variation was more pronounced for older people (mean daily AMI deaths of people older than 70 years was 3.53 in June and 7.03 in December; p < 0.001) and of only marginal significance for younger people. The best predictor of daily AMI deaths was the average temperature of the previous seven days; the relation between daily AMI deaths and seven-day average temperature (R(2) = 0.109, p < 0.001) was U-shaped. Considering monthly AMI death rates, only mean monthly humidity was independently associated with total deaths from AMI (R(2) = 0.541, p = 0.004). CONCLUSION: Ambient temperature is an important predictor of AMI mortality even in the mild climate of a Mediterranean city like Athens, its effects being predominantly evident in the elderly. Mean monthly humidity is another meteorological factor that appears to affect monthly numbers of AMI deaths. These findings may be useful for healthcare and civil protection planning.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

U-shaped relationship between mortality and admission blood pressure in patients with acute stroke.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between systolic blood pressure (SBP) or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) on admission and early or late mortality in patients with acute stroke. DESIGN: Prospective study of hospitalized first-ever stroke patients over 8 years. SETTING: Stroke unit and medical wards in a University hospital. SUBJECTS: A total of 1121 patients admitted within 24 h from stroke onset and followed up for 12 months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mortality at 1 and 12 months after stroke in relation to admission SBP and DBP. RESULTS: Early and late mortality in patients with acute ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke in relation to admission SBP and DBP followed a 'U-curve pattern'. After adjusting for known outcome predictors, the relative risk of 1-month and 1-year mortality associated with a 10-mmHg SBP increase above 130 mmHg (U-point of the curve) increased by 10.2% (95% CI: 4.2-16.6%) and 7.2% (95% CI: 2.2-12.3%), respectively. For every 10 mmHg SBP decrease, below the U-point, the relative risk of 1-month and 1-year mortality rose by 28.2% (95% CI: 8.6-51.3%) and 17.5% (95% CI: 3.1-34.0%), respectively. Low admission SBP-values were associated with heart failure (P < 0.001) and coronary artery disease (P = 0.006), whilst high values were associated with history of hypertension (P < 0.001) and lacunar stroke (P < 0.001). Death due to cerebral oedema was significantly (P = 0.005) more frequent in patients with high admission SBP-values, whereas death due to cardiovascular disease was more frequent (P = 0.004) in patients with low admission SBP-values. CONCLUSION: Acute ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke patients with high and low admission BP-values have a higher early and late mortality. Coincidence of heart disease is associated with low initial BP-values. Death due to neurological damage from brain oedema is associated with high initial BP-values.

Acute Disease↗

PubMed2001

The spatial QRS-T angle as a marker of ventricular repolarisation in hypertension.

Ventricular repolarisation abnormalities are important in arrhythmia provocation. The dispersion of repolarisation duration is not the only aspect of repolarisation heterogeneity. Spatial vectorcardiographic descriptors constitute a novel approach to quantify ventricular repolarisation. To test the ability of vectorcardiographic descriptors to discriminate between hypertensives with high or low blood pressure (BP), 110 treated hypertensives (mean age 63.6 +/- 12.1 years) were classified in the high (systolic BP > or = 160 mm Hg or diastolic BP > or = 95 mm Hg) (n = 67), or the low (systolic BP < 160 mm Hg and diastolic BP <95 mm Hg) (n = 43) BP group. The maximum QT, JT, and T peak-T end intervals and the QT, JT, and T peak--T end dispersion were calculated from a digitally recorded 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). X, Y, and Z leads were reconstructed from the 12-lead ECG. The amplitude of the maximum spatial T vector (spatial T amplitude), the angle between the maximum spatial QRS and T vectors (spatial QRS-T angle) and the frontal plane QRS-T angle were calculated. The spatial QRS-T angle was higher in patients with high compared to those with low BP (P = 0.025). All conventional ECG markers of the dispersion of ventricular repolarisation duration failed to demonstrate significant differences between hypertensives with high or low BP. In conclusion, the spatial QRS-T angle was significantly increased in those treated hypertensive patients who showed repeatedly high BP values. Hence, we may suggest that the angle between the directions of ventricular depolarisation and repolarisation is a sensitive marker of the repolarisation alterations in systemic hypertension. Journal of Human Hypertension (2001) 15, 63-70

Aged↗

PubMed2001

Spatial aspects of ventricular repolarization in postinfarction patients.

QT dispersion has been proposed to reflect the heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization, but a poor reproducibility limits its clinical usefulness. Spatial vectorcardiographic descriptors constitute a novel approach to quantify ventricular repolarization. To test the ability of vectorcardiographic descriptors to discriminate among different subsets of postinfarction patients, 50 consecutively recruited patients with acute MI, 50 patients with history of an old (> 6 months) MI, and 50 healthy controls were evaluated. The maximum and minimum QT and JT intervals and QT and JT dispersion were manually measured from a digitally recorded 12-lead ECG. X, Y, and Z leads were reconstructed from the 12-lead ECG. The amplitude of the maximum spatial T vector (spatial T amplitude), the angle between the maximum spatial QRS and T vectors (spatial QRS-T angle), and the frontal plane QRS-T angle were automatically calculated. The spatial T amplitude and the spatial QRS-T angle did not differ between patients with a recent and those with an old MI (P = 1). QT dispersion was significantly lower in patients with an old MI than in patients with a recent one (P = 0.002). The spatial repolarization descriptors showed better short-term reproducibility than the dispersion indices. In conclusion, the spatial T amplitude and the spatial QRS-T angle are accurate measures of ventricular repolarization that do not differ between patients with recent and those with old MI. The different QT dispersion values observed in this study between the two post-MI groups should be considered cautiously because of the low accuracy of the manual measurements.

Case-Control Studies↗

PubMed2000

Leukocytoclastic vasculitis: is propranolol implicated?

Drugs frequently cause cutaneous adverse reactions. The suspected agent is sometimes difficult to identify, especially in patients receiving multidrug treatment and with underlying illnesses that may contribute to the clinical picture. In our patient, propranolol-induced leukocytoclastic vasculitis was diagnosed by exclusion.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists↗