Introduction: The optimal pre-participation screening strategy to identify athletes at risk for exercise-induced cardiovascular events is unknown. We therefore aimed to compare the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and European Society of Cardiology (ESC) pre-participation screening strategies …

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are by far the leading cause of death due to non communicable diseases in the world. The development of CVDs in many cases is caused by atherosclerosis. In atherosclerosis, plaques in blood vessels are formed by the excessive accumulation of lipids in the endothelial lining. …

Atherosclerosis is the development of lipid-laden plaques in arteries and is nowadays considered as an inflammatory disease. It has been shown that high doses of ionizing radiation, as used in radiotherapy, can increase the risk of development or progression of atherosclerosis. To elucidate the effects …

Coronary heart disease is the most occurring type of cardiovascular disease. It caused 7.22 million deaths in 2002 and its prevalence is estimated to keep on increasing. Everyday diet was shown to be of influence and added sugar was linked with adverse health condition. It could therefore be a precursor …

Background: Endothelial dysfunction is a marker of early stages of atherosclerosis and in general of cardiovascular disease. Assessing the endothelium can be achieved non-invasively, using the flow-mediated dilatation technique. Method: For the experiment 21 patients with an inactive cardiovascular …

Circulating sex hormone levels have been linked to a wide range of cardiovascular risk factors in men, but studies on incident CVD have been inconclusive [1]. Recent data from meta-analyses show an increase in CVD risk with low testosterone in elderly men and no association with estradiol levels …

IL-4 and IL-13 are prototypic Th2 cytokines that generate an “alternatively activated” phenotype in macrophages. We used high-density oligonucleotide microarrays to investigate the transcriptional profile induced in human monocytes by IL-13. After 8-h stimulation with IL-13, 142 genes were regulated …