Publications by authors named "Maria Immacolata Arnone"
Article Synopsis
- Acute dyspnea (AD) is a common reason for hospital visits, and integrated ultrasound examination (IUE) is increasingly used for quick diagnosis of conditions like acute heart failure (aHF).
- A study involving 92 patients used IUE to assess the relationship between left ventricle diastolic function and aHF by measuring the E/A ratio through pulse wave doppler.
- Results showed that while lung ultrasound also had good diagnostic ability, the E/A ratio had the highest accuracy (AUC of 0.93) in determining aHF in patients presenting with AD.
Impact of visit-to-visit blood pressure variability on hypertensive-mediated target organ damage and future cardiovascular events: the Campania salute network.
J Hypertens
September 2021
Background: Exaggerated variability of blood pressure (BP) poses additional stress on cardiovascular system independent of BP average value, increasing risk of target organ damage (HMOD) and cardiovascular events. We assessed the impact of visit-to-visit variability (VVV) of BP on development of cardiovascular events and HMOD.
Methods: Standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of variability of mean SBP and DBP were calculated in 3555 patients from the Campania Salute Network registry, with available echocardiogram and more than six visits during follow-up.
Increased intima-media thickness (IMT) of common carotid artery (CA) is considered the hallmark of vascular hypertension-mediated target organ damage, even if vessel remodeling due to mechanical stress may also induce changes in diameter. We developed a method computing both diameter and IMT of CA, to assess correlates and prognostic impact of carotid cross-sectional area (CCSA) in a large registry of treated hypertensive patients. We selected 6300 hypertensive patients of the Campania Salute Network registry free of overt cardiovascular (CV) disease and with available CA ultrasound (54 ± 11 years; 57% male).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArterial blood gas analysis utility in predicting lung injury in blunt chest trauma.
Respir Physiol Neurobiol
March 2020
Article Synopsis
- Thoracic trauma is a major cause of death, constituting 25-50% of traumatic injuries, with various forms of lung injuries identified, including lung contusion, pneumothorax, and haemothorax.
- The study analyzed 51 blunt chest trauma patients in an Italian emergency department, assessing arterial blood gas parameters to predict lung injuries as determined by CT scans.
- Results indicated that patients with lung injuries had distinct differences in oxygen levels and gas exchange metrics compared to those without injuries, suggesting that certain blood gas variables can effectively identify lung injuries quickly in emergency settings.
Increased arterial stiffness is associated with advanced arteriosclerosis, abnormal left ventricular (LV) geometry and function. Whether increased arterial stiffness is associated with incident cardiovascular (CV) event (MACE), independent of other markers of target organ damage needs to be clarified. We selected hypertensive participants of the Campania Salute Network free of prevalent CV disease, with available echocardiogram and carotid ultrasound, ejection fraction ≥50%, and ≤ stage III Chronic Kidney Disease ( = 6907).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Lowering systolic blood pressure (SBP) below the conventional threshold (140 mm Hg) reduces left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and incident cardiovascular (CV) events. We assessed whether different thresholds of SBP as the average value during follow-up (FU) have different impact on changes in target organ damage (TOD).
Methods: From the Campania Salute Network registry, we selected 4,148 hypertensive patients with average SBP-FU <140 mm Hg, and without history of prevalent CV or chronic kidney disease (i.