S Andreas

..These findings indicate that nasal oxygen has distinct effects on ventilation and heart rate in chronic heart failure...

..However, the changes in haematocrit and total lung capacity following irbesartan raise the possibility that well-known cardiovascular drugs can produce unanticipated beneficial effects in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients...

..Currently, little is known about the effect of treatments directed at neurohumoral activation and COPD. As this aspect of COPD becomes better understood, new insights may direct novel therapeutic approaches...

..The options for treating central sleep apnea in heart failure are limited and include theophylline. Whether theophylline alters sympathetic activity in heart failure patients is not known...

..However, 100% O(2) may decrease cardiac output, thereby offsetting the effects on the chemoreflexes...

..Whether successful treatment of nocturnal CSR has any impact on the high mortality of CHF needs to be resolved in controlled studies with sufficient sample size...

..CONCLUSIONS: In patients with congestive heart failure, short term CPAP elicits sympathetic activation, probably because of unloading of the aortic or cardiopulmonary baroreceptors...

..This is partly explained by arterial chemoreflex activation and may play an important role in the pathogenesis of the disease...

..In conclusion, sympathovagal imbalance is present in normoxic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. The possibility of modifying these changes by slow breathing may help to better understand and influence this systemic disease...

..This article summarises the current evidence on the health consequences of passive smoking and on the favourable effects of public smoking bans...

..While nicotine causes addiction, heart and lung diseases are caused by other substances contained in tobacco smoke. This study assessed whether these facts are adequately portrayed in German medical textbooks...

..This study assessed a newly set-up, hospital-based smoking cessation clinic with regard to continuous abstinence rates and the effectiveness of concomittant nicotine replacement therapy...

..We aimed to evaluate the effect of CRT alone and CRT + AOP on CSA in CHF patients and to compare the influence of CRT on CHF between CSA positive and CSA negative patients...

..Systemic effects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) significantly contribute to severity and mortality of the disease. We aimed to develop a COPD/emphysema model exhibiting systemic manifestations of the disease...

..Prevention of smoking-related disease is a major challenge to medicine. Although interventions delivered by clinicians can reduce smoking rates, the teaching of smoking cessation methods is not a top priority in most medical curricula...

..The aim of this study is to investigate whether moderately increasing inspiratory resistive loading will impact on sympathetic activity in healthy subjects and COPD patients...

..To avoid malpositioning of a defibrillator probe postoperative control should be performed using different diagnostic modalities...

..CONCLUSION: Nocturnal atrial overdrive pacing is no alternative therapeutic strategy to CPAP for the treatment of OSA in patients without clinical signs of heart failure and without conventional indication for anti-bradycardia pacing...

..Medication use was significantly more common in the intervention than control cohort (82.1% vs. 51.2%; adjusted odds ratio 4.0; 2.34-6.83)...

..Uncontrolled studies indicate that it reduces cardiovascular risk in patients with severe OSA and increased risk or manifest coronary artery disease. However, ongoing studies still have to confirm this...

..These data strongly suggest that passive smoking is capable of precipitating acute manifestations of CVD (atherothrombosis) and may also have a negative impact on the outcome of patients who suffer acute coronary syndromes...