Blood pressure variability is associated with macrovascular complications and stroke, but its association with the microcirculation in type II diabetes has not been assessed. This study aimed to determine the relationship between blood pressure variability indices and retinal arteriolar diameter in non-diabetic and type II diabetes participants. Digitized retinal images were analysed to quantif...

Microvascular complications are now recognized to play a major role in diabetic complications, and understanding the mechanisms is critical. Endothelial dysfunction occurs early in the course of the development of complications; the precise mechanisms remain poorly understood. Mitochondrial dysfunction may occur in a diabetic rat heart and may act as a source of the oxidative stress. However, t...

Purpose:To determine the effects of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB) on albuminuria in patients with obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and established diabetic nephropathy.Methods:A retrospective analysis of clinical records from a tertiary diabetes service identified obese patients with T2DM who had micro- or macroalbuminuria prior to LAGB surgery. Clinical data from follo...

This single visit study examined whether endothelial function, in addition to cardiovascular (CV) risk factors and plasma microparticle content, was normalised in 15 patients with type 2 diabetes + acute coronary syndrome (ACS) (6 weeks-6 months post cardiac event) undergoing standard clinical care compared to 16 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. Results: While total and low-density lipopr...

BACKGROUND: Blood pressure targets in individuals treated for hypertension in primary care remain difficult to attain. AIMS: To assess the role of practice nurses in facilitating intensive and structured management to achieve ideal BP levels. METHODS: We analysed outcome data from the Valsartan Intensified Primary carE Reduction of Blood Pressure Study. Patients were randomly allocat...

BACKGROUND: The cost-effectiveness of heart failure management programs (HF-MPs) is highly variable. We explored intervention and clinical characteristics likely to influence cost outcomes. METHODS: A systematic review of economic analyses alongside randomized clinical trials comparing HF-MPs and usual care. Electronic databases were searched for English peer-reviewed articles published ...

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia managed in clinical practice. Maintenance of intended rate or rhythm control following hospitalisation is a key therapeutic goal. AIMS: The purpose of this study was to assess post-discharge maintenance of intended AF control and classify potentially predictive heart rate (HR) phenotypes via electrocardiogram (ECG) Ho...

BACKGROUND: Regional-dwelling adults have higher levels of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. AIMS: To determine the potential benefits of a nurse-led, self-management intervention program to reduce CVD and diabetes risk. METHODS AND RESULTS: A six-month pre/post observational study was conducted in a high risk, under-serviced regional community. A nurse-led heart health clinic was establi...

BACKGROUND: The reported cost effectiveness of cardiovascular disease management programs (CVD-MPs) is highly variable, potentially leading to different funding decisions. This systematic review evaluates published modeled analyses to compare study methods and quality. METHODS: Articles were included if an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) or cost-utility ratio (ICUR) was reported,...

Background: Successful management of warfarin, new anti-thrombotic agents and self-monitoring devices requires that health care professionals effectively counsel and educate patients. Previous studies indicate that health care professionals do not always have the knowledge to provide patients with the correct information. Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate European cardiovascula...

BACKGROUND: A sustained epidemic of cardiovascular disease and related risk factors is a global phenomenon contributing significantly to premature deaths and costly morbidity. Preventative strategies across the full continuum of life, from a population to individual perspective, are not optimally applied. This paper describes a simple and adaptable 'traffic-light' system we have developed to s...

BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairments occur frequently in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), resulting in worse health outcomes than expected. These impairments can remain undetected unless specifically screened. There are limited sensitive screening measures available in nursing practice to identify mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Aim: To compare the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) ...

BACKGROUND: A key component of the structured approach to the management of chronic heart failure (CHF) is effective patient education. Patient education is a precursor to performing appropriate health-related behaviours that can decrease rehospitalizations. AIM: To pilot test an educational intervention and to determine the efficacy of a self-care manual combined with a DVD for patients wit...

Disparate population surveys of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have been conducted in Tonga for 4 decades. This study standardizes these surveys to enable assessment of T2DM and obesity trends in Tongans aged 25 to 64 years over 1973-2012, and projects T2DM prevalence to 2020 based on demographic and population weight changes. Eight surveys were standardized to the nearest census to produce na...

Adults' walking for transport is important for health benefits and can be associated with availability of destinations such as shops and services within a walking distance of 10 to 15 minutes from home. However, relevant evidence is mostly from Western countries. This study examined associations of destinations with walking for transport in Australian and Japanese cities. Data were collected fr...

To examine the joint influences of physical activity (PA) and family history (FH) of diabetes on subsequent type 2 diabetes (T2D), the authors pooled and analyzed data from 2 community-based urban adult prospective cohort studies in 2011 in Nanjing, China. Among 4550 urban participants, the 3-year cumulative incidence of T2D was 5.1%. After adjustment for potential confounders, compared with th...

OBJECTIVE: Antipsychotic drug treatment alters status on key risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to test whether cardiovascular risk factor associations differ in adults with psychosis and adults from the general community. METHOD: Data were analysed for those aged 25-64 years from a nationally representative psychosis sample (n = 1,457) and a national comparat...

Platelets play a critical role in atherogenesis and thrombosis-mediated myocardial ischemia, processes that are accelerated in diabetes. Whether hyperglycemia promotes platelet production and whether enhanced platelet production contributes to enhanced atherothrombosis remains unknown. Here we found that in response to hyperglycemia, neutrophil-derived S100 calcium-binding proteins A8/A9 (S100A...

High levels of circulating TNF and its receptors, TNFR1 and TNFR2, predict the progression of diabetic kidney disease (DKD), but their contribution to organ damage in DKD remains largely unknown. Here, we investigated the function of local and systemic TNF in podocyte injury. We cultured human podocytes with sera collected from DKD patients, who displayed elevated TNF levels, and focal segmenta...

α-Actinin-3 deficiency occurs in approximately 16% of the global population due to homozygosity for a common nonsense polymorphism in the ACTN3 gene. Loss of α-actinin-3 is associated with reduced power and enhanced endurance capacity in elite athletes and nonathletes due to "slowing" of the metabolic and physiological properties of fast fibers. Here, we have shown that α-actinin-3 deficiency r...