IntroductionThere is a remarkable increase in cardiovascular disease after menopause. On the other hand, metabolic syndrome as a collection of risk factors has a known effect on cardiovascular diseases. Hormone changes are considered as one of the main relevant factor regarding cardiovascular disease as well as some recognized relationship with metabolic syndrome's components. This study was carried out in order to search for prevalence of metabolic syndrome during menopausal transition.MethodIn a cross sectional study in urban and rural areas of Isfahan, Najafabad and Arak cities, 1596 women aged more than 45 years were investigated using Isfahan Healthy Heart Program's (IHHP) samples. Participants were categorized into three groups of pre-menopause, menopause and post-menopause. Leisure time physical activity and global dietary index were included as life style factors. The association of metabolic syndrome and its components with menopausal transition considering other factors such as age and life style was analyzed.Resultsthere were 303, 233 and 987 women in premenopausal, early menopausal and postmenopausal groups respectively. Metabolic syndrome was found in 136(44.9%) premenopausal participants and significantly increased to 135(57.9%) and 634(64.3%) in early menopausal and postmenopausal participants respectively, when age was considered (P = 0.010). Except for hypertension and hypertriglyceridemia, there was no significant difference between three groups of menopausal transition when metabolic syndrome's components were considered.ConclusionIn contrary to the claims regarding the role of waist circumference and blood glucose in increasing of metabolic syndrome during the menopausal transition, this study showed this phenomenon could be independence of them.

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Background:Myeloperoxidase (MPO) has an important role in the both processes of inflammation and oxidative stress. It plays proatherogenic role via low-density lipoprotein oxidation, functional inactivation of the high-density lipoprotein and endothelial dysfunction, and seems to be involved in the atherogenesis of coronary arteries. This study designed to evaluate the association between the plasma MPO levels and angiographic severity of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with the stable CAD.Materials and Methods:Sixty-eight patients who had documented CAD with angiography and 66 subjects who had normal angiography were selected as case and the control groups for this study, respectively. Gensini scoring system was used for evaluation of severity of coronary artery stenosis. Plasma MPO and C-reactiveprotein (CRP) levels of both case and control groups were determined.Results:Plasma MPO levels and CRP levels were significantly higher in CAD patients (P < 0.001), and plasma levels of MPO and CRP were correlated with Genssini scores.Conclusions:Our findings indicated that the plasma MPO levels increase in patients with stable CAD and hence that, it can be used as adiagnostic factor to predict the coronary artery atherosclerosis severity in stable CAD patients; However, it needs further widespread investigations to achieve an accurate cut point.

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Background: Survivors of acute myocardial infarction(AMI) struggle with stressful consequences. Sense of coherence(SOC) seems to be associated with a person's capacity to face life incidents. The current study aims to evaluate SOC's correlation with the major adverse cardiac events(MACE) among the AMI survivors. The study was designed and reported following the STROBE guidelines and checklist.Methods: This study was part of the ST-elevated myocardial infarction cohort study in Isfahan(SEMI-CI) conducted on 724 AMI survivors followed for two years. The patients' demographic, medical history and follow-up manifestations were recruited. The 13-item SOC questionnaire was utilized and the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research(DCPR) questionnaire for psychosomatic disorders evaluation, including health anxiety, illness denial, irritable mood, and demoralization. MACE was defined as non-fatal MI, non-fatal stroke, and atherosclerosis cardiovascular disease-related death was recorded. Results: Logistic regression assessments showed that the SOC level was an independent predictor for the development of MACE(OR:0.67; 95%CI:0.40-0.85). This finding was confirmed by the controlling factors, including demographic data(OR:0.60; 95%CI:0.35-0.79), demographic factors and medical history(OR:0.62; 95%CI:0.36-0.86), the previous ones plus clinical follow-up assessments(OR:0.59; 95%CI:0.33-0.79), and all the evaluations plus psychosomatic factors(OR:0.76; 95%CI:0.42-0.92). Similar outcomes were achieved using SOC scores.Conclusion: Based on this study, SOC was an independent MACE predictor in a large population of AMI patients through a 2-year-follow-up period.