Cardiology Journal 2013, tom 20, nr 4

The appearance of periodontal diseases (PD), which cause extensive infl ammatory processes, can develop increased susceptibility to vascular illnesses based on atherosclerosis. Periodontal pathogens affect organism directly by damaging the vascular endothelium and indirectly by activating hypercytokinemia (infl ammatory-cytokine storm) [1, 2]...

The advent of modern treatments in cardiology and the resulting survival benefi t in industrialized countries have considerably increased the size of the population of patients suffering from congestive heart failure (CHF), estimated at over 15 million in the European Union [1]. Coronary artery disease (CAD), hypertension and tachyarrhythmia, usually in the form of atrial fi brillation (AF), are believed to be the most common causative factors of myocardial dysfunction [2–4]...

Heart failure (HF) is currently one of the most common and rising chronic diseases in developed countries. Total percentage of people with HF reaches 0.4–2% in Europe [1] and among people over the age of 75 it exceeds 10% [2]. In European Union countries the number of patients surpasses 15 million [3] and in Poland 1 million [4]...

Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) is one of the most common and yet largely under-diagnosed co-morbidity in patients with heart failure (HF) [1, 2]. It leads to further deterioration of cardiac function and worsens prognosis [3–6]. SDB may be a potential therapeutic target as its effective treatment improves quality of life, exercise tolerance and, possibly, long term prognosis [5–10]. However, the importance of SDB remains unrecognized and the disorder itself is diagnosed rarely and remains untreated [5]...

Since the fi rst successful blood transfusion performed by James Blundell in 1818, this procedure has become part of daily clinical practice. Advances in blood safety have greatly reduced the risk of transfusion-associated infectious disease transmission and blood has never been as safe as it is now, however, the risks associated with blood transfusion have not been entirely eliminated...

While atrial fi brillation (AF) is the most common rhythm disorders observed in our clinical practice, its prevalence in general population is 1–2% [1]. As an important cause of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity with progressively increasing prevalence, AF has become a serious health issue recently...