Acute pericarditis is a common self-limiting illness which usually has few sequelae. However, in a small proportion of patients, pericarditis can become recurrent making treatment more challenging. The use of colchicine to treat acute pericarditis and prevent recurrence has been a topic of increasing interest in recent years. In this multicentre, double-blind trial, adults with […]
Tag: inflammation
HIV and arterial inflammation
Patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) demonstrate a high prevalence of noncalcified coronary atherosclerotic lesions. However, the specific mechanisms that lead to this remain unknown. In this study Subramanian et al. used 18fluorine-2-deoxy-D-glucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG-PET) to assess arterial wall inflammation in patients with HIV, and compared this to traditional and nontraditional risk makers. […]
Acute effects of air pollution – Beijing Olympics study
Although it is now well established that air pollution is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), the mechanisms by which air pollution leads to CVD are not well understood. Postulated mechanisms include systemic inflammation and thrombosis or endothelial dysfunction. However, pollution-associated increases in these biomarkers have been inconsistent, partly due to inherent limitations of […]