Autumn Migration of Immature Red Kites Milvus milvus from a Central European Population

Abstract Background Normative reference values for echocardiographic chamber quantification are of great importance; however, this can be challenging. Our aim was to derive these values including degrees of abnormality from a random Central European population sample with a homogeneous subset of healthy subjects. Methods We analysed echocardiograms obtained in a randomly selected population sample during the Czech post-MONICA survey in 2007/2008. Overall, 1850 out of 2273 persons of the whole sample of three districts had adequate echocardiograms (81.4%). A healthy subgroup defined by the absence of known cardiovascular disease was used to define normal reference range limits (n = 575, median age 42 years [IQR 34–52], 57% females). The whole population sample with predefined percentile cut-offs was used to define degrees of abnormality. Results Left ventricular (LV) size tended to decrease with age, while LV mass increased with age in both males and females and in both the healthy and general populations. LV dimensions were larger in males, except for body surface area-indexed LV diameter. M-mode derived LV measurements were larger and LV mass higher compared to 2D measurements. Right ventricle basal dimension was larger in males. Conclusions Our study provides reference ranges for echocardiographic measurements obtained in a healthy subgroup derived from an epidemiological study of a Central European population. Where feasible, degrees of abnormality are provided based on the whole population sample including patients with disease. Our data show that age, gender and measurement method significantly affect cardiac dimensions and function and should be always taken into account.

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Determination of frail state and association of frailty with inflammatory markers among cardiac surgery patients in a Central European patient population

Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation ◽

10.3233/ch-190681 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 76 (3) ◽

pp. 341-350

Author(s):

Rudolf Kiss ◽

Nelli Farkas ◽

Gabor Jancso ◽

Krisztina Kovacs ◽

Laszlo Lenard

Keyword(s):

Cardiac Surgery ◽

Heart Surgery ◽

European Population ◽

Central European ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Inflammatory Processes ◽

Hospital Deaths ◽

Development Methods ◽

Central European Population

INTRODUCTION: With the aging of the population, the screening of frail patients, especially before high-risk surgery, come to the fore. The background of the frail state is not totally clear, most likely inflammatory processes are involved in the development. METHODS: Our survey of patients over age of 65 who were on cardiac surgery were performed with Edmonton Frail Scale (EFS). Patients’ demographic, perioperative data, incidence of complications and correlations of inflammatory laboratory parameters were studied with the severity of the frail state. RESULTS: On the basis of EFS, 313 patients were divided into non-frail (NF,163,52%), pre-frail (PF,89,28.5%) and frail (F,61,19.5%) groups. Number of complications in the three groups were different (NF:0.67/patient, PF:0.76/patient, F:1.08/patient). We showed significant difference between NF and F in both intensive care and hospital stay, but there was no statistical difference between the groups in hospital deaths (NF:5/163, PF:3/89, F:5/61). We also found a significant difference between NF and F patients in preoperative fibrinogen-, CRP- and white blood cell count levels. CONCLUSIONS: We first present the incidence of frailty in patients with heart surgery in a Central-European population. According to our results, inflammatory processes are likely to play a role in the development of the frail state.

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