Circulating MiRNA-195-5p and -451a in Diabetic Patients with Transient and Acute Ischemic Stroke in the Emergency Department.

(1) Background: Circulating micro-RNAs (miRNAs) modulate the expression of molecules in diabetes. We evaluated the expression of serum miRNA-195-5p and -451a in diabetic patients with ischemic stroke and correlated them with two markers of brain tissue integrity. (2) Methods: Seventy-eight subjects with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) or transient ischemic attack (TIA) (40 with diabetes) were enrolled. Serum miRNA levels, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) were assessed at admission and 24 and 72 h after a post-ischemic stroke, and were compared to 20 controls. (3) Results: Both circulating miRNAs were two-fold up-regulated in diabetic AIS and TIA patients compared to non-diabetics. Their levels progressively decreased at 24 and 72 h in both AIS and TIA patients. Interestingly, in the non-diabetic TIA group, both circulating miRNAs, although higher than the controls, tended to achieve a complete decay after 72 h. Furthermore, miRNA-195-5p and miRNA-451a levels inversely correlated with both BDNF and VEGF-A serum levels. (4) Conclusions: These data show a different profile of both micro-RNAs in diabetic versus non-diabetic patients after acute ischemic stroke, suggesting their pivotal role in cerebrovascular ischemic attack.

Circulating miRNA-195-5p and -451a in Patients with Acute Hemorrhagic Stroke in Emergency Department.

(1) Background: In our previous study, acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients showed increased levels of circulating miRNAs (-195-5p and -451a) involved in vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) regulation. Here, we evaluated, for the first time, both circulating miRNAs in acute intracerebral hemorrhagic (ICH) patients. (2) Methods: Circulating miRNAs and serum VEGF-A were assessed by real-time PCR and ELISA in 20 acute ICH, 21 AIS patients, and 21 controls. These were evaluated at hospital admission (T0) and after 96 h (T96) from admission. (3) Results: At T0, circulating miRNAs were five-times up-regulated in AIS patients, tending to decrease at T96. By contrast, in the acute ICH group, circulating miRNAs were significantly increased at both T0 and T96. Moreover, a significant decrease was observed in serum VEGF-A levels at T0 in AIS patients, tending to increase at T96. Conversely, in acute ICH patients, the levels of VEGF-A were significantly decreased at both T0 and T96. (4) Conclusions: The absence of a reduction in circulating miRNAs (195-5p and -451a), reported in acute ICH subjects after 96 h from hospital admission, together with the absence of increment of serum VEGF-A, may represent useful biomarkers indicating the severe brain damage status that characterizes acute ICH patients.

Low triiodothyronine and cardiomyopathy in patients with end-stage renal disease.

OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: Low free plasma triiodothyronine (fT3) is associated with inflammation and cardiovascular damage in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). We investigated the relationship between fT3, left ventricular systolic function and left ventricular mass in a group of 234 dialysis patients, and modelled the association between fT3 and cardiomyopathy in statistical analyses including both direct (interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein) and inverse (serum albumin) acute phase inflammation markers. RESULTS: Plasma fT3 concentration in dialysis patients was significantly (P < 0.001) reduced in comparison with healthy participants and clinically euthyroid patients with normal renal function. Left ventricular systolic function was depressed (P

Plasma norepinephrine predicts survival and incident cardiovascular events in patients with end-stage renal disease.

BACKGROUND: Sympathetic tone is consistently raised in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). We therefore tested the hypothesis that sympathetic activation is associated with mortality and cardiovascular events in a cohort of 228 patients undergoing chronic hemodialysis who did not have congestive heart failure at baseline and who had left ventricular ejection fraction >35%. METHODS AND RESULTS: The plasma concentration of norepinephrine (NE) was used as a measure of sympathetic activity. Plasma NE exceeded the upper limit of the normal range (cutoff 3.54 nmol/L) in 102 dialysis patients (45%). In a multivariate Cox regression model that included all univariate predictors of death as well as the use of sympathicoplegic agents and beta-blockers, plasma NE proved to be an independent predictor of this outcome (hazard ratio [1-nmol/L increase in plasma NE]: 1.07, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.14, P=0.03). Similarly, plasma NE emerged as an independent predictor of fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events (hazard ratio [1-nmol/L increase in plasma NE] 1.08, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.15, P=0.01) in a model that included previous cardiovascular events, pulse pressure, age, diabetes, smoking, and use of sympathicoplegic agents and beta-blockers. The adjusted relative risk for cardiovascular complications in patients with plasma NE >75th percentile was 1.92 (95% CI 1.20 to 3.07) times higher than in those below this threshold (P=0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Sympathetic nerve overactivity is associated with mortality and cardiovascular outcomes in ESRD. Controlled trials with antiadrenergic drugs are needed to determine whether interference with the sympathetic system could reduce the high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in dialysis patients.

Exaggerated endothelin release in response to acute mental stress in patients with intermittent claudication.

Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is an endothelial-derived 21-amino-acid peptide with potent vasoconstrictor and mitogenic properties implicated in several cardiovascular disorders. To evaluate the plasma ET-1 response to mental stress in patients with intermittent claudication, plasma endothelin concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay in 15 claudicant outpatients (13 men and 2 women; mean age 62 +/- 4 years) and in 15 sex- and age-matched healthy control subjects (12 men and 3 women; mean age 60 +/- 8 years) before and after mental arithmetic performed for 10 minutes. Venous blood samples were drawn from an antecubital vein at baseline, at the end of the mental arithmetic, and at 10 minutes of recovery. Baseline ET-1 values were higher in patients with intermittent claudication as compared with control subjects (4.5 +/- 0.5 pmol/L and 2.2 +/- 0.3 pmol/L, respectively, p < 0.0001). At the end of mental stress, ET-1 levels rose significantly in both groups from baseline (p < 0.001) reaching a higher value in patients with intermittent claudication than in control subjects (5.6 +/- 0.7 pmol/L and 2.4 +/- 0.4 pmol/L, respectively, p < 0.0001). The percent increases (delta%) in ET-1 plasma concentrations from baseline in response to mental stress were significantly greater in claudicant patients than in control subjects (+23 +/- 9% and +9 +/- 7%, respectively, p < 0.0001). ET-1 plasma concentrations returned to baseline values similarly in both groups at minute 10 of the recovery period. These findings show that acute mental stress causes an exaggerated release of ET-1 in patients with intermittent claudication and suggest that this could be a potential pathophysiological mechanism through which mental stress may trigger adverse acute cardiac events and accelerate progression of atherosclerosis in these patients.

Norepinephrine and concentric hypertrophy in patients with end-stage renal disease.

We have recently observed that in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) raised plasma norepinephrine (NE) is an independent predictor of incident cardiovascular events but that its prognostic power is reduced when this sympathetic marker is tested in statistical models including also left ventricular mass. Because left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) may be a mechanism whereby NE contributes to the high rate of cardiovascular events in ESRD, we examined the relationship between plasma NE and echocardiographic parameters of left ventricle mass in a large group of ESRD patients. Mean wall thickness (MWT) was higher in patients in the third NE tertile than in the other 2 tertiles (P=0.001), and such an increase was paralleled by a rise in relative wall thickness (RWT) (P=0.006). Concentric LVH was more prevalent in patients in the third NE tertile (46%) than in the second (38%) and first (25%) NE tertiles. Multivariate regression analysis confirmed that the association of plasma NE with the muscular component of left ventricle (MWT) and with RWT was independent (P< or =0.001) of other cardiovascular risk factors, and in these models, plasma NE ranked as the second correlate of MWT and RWT. Similarly, multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the association of plasma NE with concentric LVH was strong and again independent of other risk factors (P=0.003). Plasma NE is associated to concentric LVH in ESRD patients. These observations constitute a sound basis for testing the effect of anti-adrenergic drugs on left ventricle mass and on cardiovascular outcomes in patients with ESRD.

Cardiac natriuretic peptides are related to left ventricular mass and function and predict mortality in dialysis patients.

This study was designed to investigate the relationship among brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and left ventricular mass (LVM), ejection fraction, and LV geometry in a large cohort of dialysis patients without heart failure (n = 246) and to test the prediction power of these peptides for total and cardiovascular mortality. In separate multivariate models of LVM, BNP and ANP were the strongest independent correlates of the LVM index. In these models, the predictive power of BNP was slightly stronger than that of ANP. Both natriuretic peptides also were the strongest independent predictors of ejection fraction, and again BNP was a slightly better predictor of ejection fraction than ANP. In separate multivariate Cox models, the relative risk of death was significantly higher in patients of the third tertile of the distribution of BNP and ANP than in those of the first tertile (BNP, 7.14 [95% confidence interval (CI), 2.83 to 18.01, P = 0.00001]; ANP, 4.22 [95% CI, 1.79 to 9.92, P = 0.001]), and a similar difference was found for cardiovascular death (BNP, 6.72 [95% CI, 2.44 to 18.54, P = 0.0002]; ANP, 3.80 [95% CI, 1.44 to 10.03, P = 0.007]). BNP but not ANP remained as an independent predictor of death in a Cox's model including LVM and ejection fraction. Cardiac natriuretic peptides are linked independently to LVM and function in dialysis patients and predict overall and cardiovascular mortality. The measurement of the plasma concentration of BNP and ANP may be useful for risk stratification in these patients.

Prognostic impact of the indexation of left ventricular mass in patients undergoing dialysis.

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is exceedingly frequent in patients undergoing dialysis. Cardiac mass is proportional to body size, but the influence of various indexing methods has not been studied in patients with end-stage renal disease. The issue is important because malnutrition and volume expansion would both tend to distort the estimate of LV mass (LVM) in these patients. In a cohort of 254 patients, the prognostic impact on all-cause mortality and cardiovascular outcomes of LVH values, calculated according to two established methods of indexing, either body surface area (BSA) or height(2.7), was assessed prospectively. When LVM was analyzed as a categorical variable, the height(2.7)-based method identified a larger number of patients with LVH than the corresponding BSA-based method. One hundred and thirty-seven fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events occurred during the follow-up period. Overall, 90 patients died, 51 of cardiovascular causes. In separate Cox models, both the LVM/height(2.7) and the LVM/BSA index independently predicted total and cardiovascular mortality (P < 0.001). However, the height(2.7)-based method coherently produced a closer-fitting model (P < or = 0.02) than did the BSA-based method. The height(2.7) index was also important for the subcategorization of patients according to the presence of concentric or eccentric LVH because the prognostic value of such subcategorization was apparent only when the height(2.7)-based criterion was applied. In conclusion, LVM is a strong and independent predictor of survival and cardiovascular events in patients undergoing dialysis. The indexing of LVM by height(2.7) provides more powerful prediction of mortality and cardiovascular outcomes than the BSA-based method, and the use of this index appears to be appropriate in patients undergoing dialysis.

Hyperhomocysteinemia predicts cardiovascular outcomes in hemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND: We prospectively tested the prediction power of homocysteinemia for all-cause and cardiovascular outcomes in a cohort of 175 hemodialysis patients followed for 29 +/- 12 months. METHODS: Survival analysis was performed by the Cox's proportional hazard model and data were expressed as hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval (CI). RESULTS: During the follow-up period 51 patients died, 31 of them (61%) of cardiovascular causes and 16 patients developed non-fatal atherothrombotic complications. Plasma total homocysteine was an independent predictor of cardiovascular mortality (P=0.01). Combined analysis of fatal and non-fatal atherothrombotic events showed that homocysteine was a strong and independent predictor of these outcomes because the risk of these events was 8.2 times higher (95% CI 1.9 to 32.2) in patients in the third homocysteine tertile than in those in the first tertile (P=0.005). CONCLUSIONS: There is a clear association between hyperhomocysteinemia and incident cardiovascular mortality and atherothrombotic events in hemodialysis patients. Intervention studies are needed to determine whether the accumulation of this substance has a causal role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular damage in patients undergoing hemodialysis.

Chlamydia pneumoniae, overall and cardiovascular mortality in end-stage renal disease (ESRD).

BACKGROUND: Cross-sectional and retrospective studies suggest that Chlamydia pneumoniae infection may contribute importantly to the high cardiovascular risk of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). METHODS: We investigated the relationship between C. pneumoniae serology and survival and incident fatal cardiovascular events in a cohort of 227 ESRD patients (follow-up of 39 +/- 20 months). RESULTS: On univariate Cox regression analysis patients with anti-C. pneumoniae immunogloblulin A (IgA) titer > or = 1:16 had a significantly higher risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality when compared to patients without IgA antibodies. However, after data adjustment for age and smoking, the hazard ratio (HR) decreased substantially and became largely nonsignificant. Adjustments for traditional and nontraditional risk factors further decreased the independent association of IgA anti-C. pneumoniae and these outcomes (all-cause mortality HR, 1.08; 95% CI, 0.68 to 1.72; P = 0.74; cardiovascular mortality HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 0.60 to 1.89; P = 0.83). A similar loss of prognostic power was observed for IgG anti-C. pneumoniae so that in fully adjusted models the HRs were very close to those observed for IgA anti-C. pneumoniae (all-cause mortality HR, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.68 to 1.86, P = 0.64; cardiovascular mortality HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.60 to 2.00; P = 0.77). CONCLUSION: C. pneumoniae seropositivity is associated to shorter survival and incident fatal cardiovascular events in patients with ESRD but these associations are in large part attributable to the link between C. pneumoniae and well-established, traditional risk factors. It is highly unlikely that C. pneumoniae infection is a major risk factor in patients with ESRD.

Prospective study of neuropeptide y as an adverse cardiovascular risk factor in end-stage renal disease.

Chronic renal insufficiency is a situation characterized by high plasma concentration of neuropeptide Y (NPY). Because this neuropeptide interferes with cardiovascular (CV) function, it is possible that it is involved in the high CV-related morbidity and mortality of these patients. To test this hypothesis, a follow-up study was performed (average duration, 34 mo; range 0.2 to 52.0 mo) in a cohort of 277 patients with end-stage renal disease receiving chronic dialysis. Univariate analysis revealed that plasma NPY was directly related to plasma norepinephrine (r = 0.37, P < 0.001) and epinephrine (r = 0.17, P = 0.005), exceeding the upper limit of the normal range in the majority of patients with end-stage renal disease (170 of 277, 61%). One hundred thirteen patients had one or more fatal and nonfatal CV events; 112 patients died, 66 of them (59%) of CV causes. Plasma NPY failed to predict all-cause mortality but was an independent predictor of adverse CV outcomes (hazard ratio [10 pmol/L increase in plasma NPY], 1.32; 95% confidence interval, 1.09 to 1.60; P = 0.004) in a Cox proportional-hazard model that included a series of traditional and nontraditional CV risk factors. Plasma NPY maintained its predictive power for CV events in statistical model including plasma norepinephrine. Plasma NPY predicts incident CV complications in end-stage renal disease. Controlled trials are needed to establish whether interference with the sympathetic system, NPY, or both may reduce the high CV morbidity and mortality of dialysis patients.