In medical treatment of chronic diseases, for example, arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and dyslipidemia, the main objective is the implementation of primary prevention or, failing that, secondary prevention of cardiovascular events, to achieve adequate control of cardiovascular prevention. Thus, the following measures are very necessary: 1. adequate patient education, 2. pharmacological prescription based on cardiovascular risk, and 3. adequate adherence to the prescribed treatment. This last point is, without a doubt, the most difficult to achieve. The health interventions recommended […]

Infective endocarditis (IE) is an infrequent yet life-threatening and disabling condition, with an estimated incidence between 3 and 12 cases per 100,000 subjects per year., Recent epidemiological studies have suggested a rising trend in the incidence of IE, potentially attributable to factors such as an aging population and a growing group of susceptible patients with congenital heart disease, intracardiac prosthesis or devices, and chronic renal failure on dialysis. Limited information is available concerning Brazil’s temporal trends on IE incidence and […]

In parallel with the increasing incidence of metabolic disorders, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus, which increase the incidence of cardiovascular diseases, the incidence of heart conditions is also growing. Many markers are being investigated for the prediction of the prognosis of cardiovascular diseases. In a recent work, Kilic et al. have studied the association of the hemoglobin to red cell distribution width (Hb/RDW) ratio with the long-term survival of patients with acute coronary syndrome. Acute coronary syndrome […]

Cardiovascular diseases are the primary cause of death worldwide. Chronic stress and obesity are important risk factors for the development of all cardiovascular diseases. Studies have shown that firefighters seem to be at higher risk of cardiovascular death, and one possible explanation is high levels of chronic stress in addition to a routine in favour of fat weight gain. An autonomic imbalance in favour of sympathetic activation to the detriment of vagal modulation might be an underlying mechanism for increased […]

D-dimer is a protein resulting from fibrin degradation. It is released into the circulation when clot degradation occurs and is therefore used as a marker for thromboembolic events and fibrinolysis. The main role of D-dimer lies in its negative predictive value for the exclusion of thromboembolic events, when its level is below 500 ng/mL. Because D-dimer functions as an inflammatory marker, various non-thromboembolic situations can contribute to an increase in its level, such as advanced age, pregnancy, postpartum period, neoplasms, […]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) were discovered in 1993 in studies of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and since then, these molecules have been of considerable importance in clinical practice for their use as potential biomarkers of different health and disease conditions. In cell biology, the miRNAs play an important role in the physiological and pathological regulation of various biological processes and act as post-transcriptional regulators by binding to messenger RNA and preventing its translation or promoting molecular cleavage.–miRNAs regulate different degenerative processes, cancer […]