Summary

Hypertension is a major public health concern worldwide because of its rising prevalence and concomitant risks of cardiovascular diseases. Coping strategies may encompass a full spectrum of clinical, epidemiological, experimental, and technological factors to inspire front-line practices and shape critical thinking. This entry collection aims to assemble entries of wealthy topics related to clinical, therapeutic, and population sciences of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases that could inform research scientists and healthcare professionals.

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Entries
Topic Review
Obstructive Sleep Apnoea, Inflammation and Cardio-Metabolic Diseases
Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a prevalent underdiagnosed disorder whose incidence increases with age and weight. Uniquely characterised by frequent breathing interruptions during sleep—known as intermittent hypoxia (IH)—OSA disrupts the circadian rhythm. Patients with OSA have repeated episodes of hypoxia and reoxygenation, leading to systemic consequences. OSA consequences range from apparent symptoms like excessive daytime sleepiness, neurocognitive deterioration and decreased quality of life to pathological complications characterised by elevated biomarkers linked to endocrine-metabolic and cardiovascular changes. OSA is a well-recognized risk factor for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.
  • 319
  • 24 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Interventional Cardiology of Chronic Heart Failure
Chronic heart failure (HF) is classified into two types: HFrEF—heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; and HFpEF—heart failure with “preserved” EF. In both the cases, increased left ventricular filling pressure impact on symptoms and on myocardial perfusion. Thus, device-based solutions were proposed to improve cardiac physiology in HF and to prevent or treat post-capillary pulmonary hypertension.
  • 386
  • 19 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Oral and Parenteral P2Y12 Inhibitor Antiplatelet Agents
Dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT), consisting of the combination of aspirin and an inhibitor of the platelet P2Y12 receptor for ADP, remains among the most investigated treatments in cardiovascular medicine. While a substantial amount of research initially stemmed from the observations of late and very late stent thrombosis events in the first-generation drug-eluting stent (DES) era, DAPT has been recently transitioning from a purely stent-related to a more systemic secondary prevention strategy. Oral and parenteral platelet P2Y12 inhibitors are currently available for clinical use. The latter have been shown to be extremely suitable in drug-naïve patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), mainly because oral P2Y12 inhibitors are associated with delayed efficacy in patients with STEMI and because pre-treatment with P2Y12 inhibitors is discouraged in NSTE-ACS, and in patients with recent DES implantation and in need of urgent cardiac and non-cardiac surgery. More definitive evidence is needed, however, about optimal switching strategies between parenteral and oral P2Y12 inhibitors and about newer potent subcutaneous agents that are being developed for the pre-hospital setting.
  • 331
  • 12 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Familial Dilated Cardiomyopathy
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a common cause of non-ischaemic heart failure, conferring high morbidity and mortality, including sudden cardiac death due to systolic dysfunction or arrhythmic sudden death. Within the DCM cohort exists a group of patients with familial disease.
  • 355
  • 07 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Coronary Syndromes and High-Altitude Exposure
High-altitude (HA) locations (more than 2500 m above sea level) are reached by millions of people on a daily basis, aspect largely due to the ease of transport in recent years, mainly by air travel. Mountain areas cover 24% of Earth’s surface: 33% of Eurasia, 19% of South America, 24% of North America, and 14% of Africa.
  • 374
  • 06 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Cardiometabolic Care
The mechanisms leading to the development of heart failure (HF) in diabetes mellitus (DM) patients are multifactorial. Assessing the risk of HF development in patients with DM is valuable not only for the identification of a high-risk subgroup, but also equally important for defining low-risk subpopulations. DM and HF have been recognized as sharing similar metabolic pathways. Moreover, the clinical manifestation of HF can be independent of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) classification. Consequently, approaching HF should be through structural, hemodynamic and functional evaluation. 
  • 415
  • 27 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Angiotensin II-Induced Long Non-Coding RNA Alivec Regulates Chondrogenesis
Angiotensin II (AngII)-regulated Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) Alivec functions, at least in part, to mediate the AngII-induced chondrogenic transformation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) implicated in vascular dysfunction and hypertension. 
  • 388
  • 10 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Renal Hypoxia
Ischemic nephropathy consists of progressive renal function loss due to renal hypoxia, inflammation, microvascular rarefaction, and fibrosis. Research reports that: 1. endovascular reperfusion is the gold-standard therapy for RAS, but its success mostly depends on treatment timeliness and a preserved downstream vascular bed; 2. anti-RAAS drugs, SGLT2 inhibitors, and/or anti-endothelin agents are especially recommended for patients with renal ischemia who are not eligible for endovascular reperfusion for slowing renal damage progression; 3. TGF-β, MCP-1, VEGF, and NGAL assays, along with BOLD MRI, should be extended in clinical practice and applied to a pre- and post-revascularization protocols; 4. MSC infusion appears effective in renal regeneration and could represent a revolutionary treatment for patients with fibrotic evolution of renal ischemia.
  • 273
  • 08 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Links between a Vegan Diet and Cardiovascular Diseases
The term “vegan diet” comprises a range of eating patterns that prioritize nutrient-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. In comparison to omnivorous diets, which are often lower in such products, the vegan diet has been favorably connected with changes in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk markers such as reduced body mass index (BMI) values, total serum cholesterol, serum glucose, inflammation, and blood pressure.
  • 409
  • 06 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Cardiac Damage in Chagas Disease
Chagas disease is a complex zoonosis. Its natural history involves the interaction of transmitting arthropods with wild, peridomestic, and domestic mammals, and it has a great diversity of transmission forms. In a vertebrate host, the disease has two clinical phases: an acute phase and a chronic one; the former evolves without demonstrated pathology and can last 10–20 years. After this phase, some patients progress to the chronic symptomatic phase, in which they develop mainly cardiac lesions. The lesions in this cardiomyopathy involve several cardiac tissues, mainly the myocardium, and in severe cases, the endocardium pericardium; this can cause pleural effusion, which may evolve into sudden death, which is more frequent in cases with dilated heart disease and severe heart failure.
  • 568
  • 02 Mar 2023
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