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The relation between obesity and cardiovascular risk factors is well documented, and risks include hypertension, cardiac remodeling and lipid disturbances. The weight loss outcomes achieved with bariatric surgery can eliminate or ameliorate such cardiovascular effects. Blackburn and Mun present the evidence for cardiovascular benefits seen with this advancing therapy.
Various cardioprotective effects seen with ischemic preconditioning and postconditioning have been documented. The application of these methods in clinical practice is not, however, straightforward because of issues with timing and the need for further elucidation of mechanisms. This review discusses whether implementation in clinical practice is feasible.
This review presents an overview of MRI for assessment of the myocardium. This method is becoming popular for the study of morphology, function, perfusion and ischemia because data on various different biological parameters can be gathered from the same area within the same scanning session simply through changes to the software.
Despite ventricular septal defects being more common than atrial septal defects, fewer trials have been done of transcatheter closure. The available results do, however, suggest positive results with low complication rates. Douglas S Moodie provides in this review an overview of current applications of transcatheter closure for membranous, perimembranous and muscular ventricular septal defects.
Statins are potent inhibitors of cholesterol synthesis and can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and strokes in high-risk patients. As discussed here, evidence suggests that statins, in addition to their lipid-lowering capacities, have nonlipid-mediated or pleiotropic roles in stroke prevention.