Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in the elderly: features and perspectives.

Aging leads to a multitude of changes in the cardiovascular system that include a rise in blood pressure. Age-related changes in blood pressure are mainly attributable to an increase in systolic blood pressure, generally associated with a slight decrease diastolic blood pressure. This leads to a widening in pulse pressure. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is a useful tool to understand these processes and to refine cardiovascular risk assessment. In the light of emerging data in this area, we reviewed the main features of ambulatory blood pressure in elderly and discussed the evidence showing that ambulatory blood pressure is superior to clinic blood pressure to reflect the true pattern of blood pressure over time. Furthermore, we discussed the role of weight control obtained by fitness programs to prevent an excessive rise in blood pressure with age. A thorough understanding of these concepts is of paramount importance and has therapeutic implications in the growing population of elderly subjects with increased blood pressure.

[Usefulness and limitations of hormonal monitoring of pregnancy with HPL and estriol in improving fetal prognosis and preventing neonatal neurologic deficiency]. / Utilità e limiti del monitoraggio ormonale della gravidanza con HPL ed estriolo nel miglioramento della prognosi fetale e nella prevenzione del deficit neurologico neonatale.

This multidisciplinary research has been subdivided into two parts. The first examines prognosis of the foetus and its weight development in relation to changes in the hormonal curves of HPL and E3 carried out in a batch of 339 3rd term pregnancies. A very high incidence of small-for-date newborns (30-64%) was noted in mothers with low hormonal values and generally a more frequent onset of hypoxia in pregnancy and in labour. The second part assesses the neurological profile of children born to the same mothers examined in the first part up to the 4th year of life. A neurological deficiency of a different extent was evidenced in 33.3% of the children born to mothers with low hormonal values in pregnancy, especially among those born underweight. The neurological deficiency in the control sample was 7.84%.