A cross-sectional study was carried out in 2016 in the research project No 4/2016. We selected 98 patients aged 40-89 and diagnosed with hypertension. The patients were admitted to Cardiology Clinic One of the University Hospital in Pleven.The study aimed to measure and compare direct and indirect costs of hypertensive patients aged 40-89 years, who were treated with lisinopril and perindopril. We estimated the total and average costs of 50 (51.0%) patients treated with lisinopril and 48 (49.0%) treated with perindopril. Males were 46.4%, and the mean age of the sample was 65.9.0±11.2 years. Data were processed by Statistical Package for Social Science version 19.0 (SPSS.v.19.0). Total costs exceeded amount reimbursed for the clinical path (BGN 420.00) in 64.6% of the patients treated with perindopril and 48.0% of the patients treated with lisinopril. We found that treatment costs within 6-months after discharge were BGN 673.82 in patients treated with lisinopril, as compared to BGN 171.92 reimbursed by the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), and BGN 781.18 for those treated with perindopril, compared to BGN 216.33 reimbursed by NHIF. The NHIF reimbursement rate for antihypertensive treatment is on access to treatment for arterial hypertension. Patients and MethodsDesign A cross-sectional study was carried out from May

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Summary Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the commonest type of arrhythmia seen in everyday clinical practice, which leads to a significant increase in both morbidity and mortality. Its incidence increases with age and tends to turn into an epidemic. The cause of AF in 10-20% of cases remains unknown. Several mutations and polymorphism that might be responsible for the development of AF have been found, including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - rs2200733 and rs10033464 in the long arm of the fourth chromosome. These polymorphisms are selected o the basis of genome- wide association study in Iceland from 2007, the results from which were later confirmed in 4 other large populations. The rs2200733 is a common noncoding polymorphism, described in National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database dbSNP like NC_000004.12:g.110789013C>T, with a frequency of the less common allele between 0.1 and 0.24. In order to investigate the association between the rs2200733 polymorphism in chromosome 4q25 and the development of AF, we studied the frequency of this polymorphism in patients with heart diseases from the Pleven region, and thus evaluate the relationship between the individual genotype and the clinical condition of the patients. We carried out a case-control study on 80 patients: 40 with AF and 40 without AF- from the Pleven region. None of these had structural heart disease. The study was conducted between November 2015 and November 2017. With deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) analysis, we determined rs2200733 polymorphism, using a TaqMan-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The Cochran-Armitage trend test, the Chi-Squared Pearson correlation, Fisher test we used confirmed the statistically significant association between the rs2200733 polymorphism in chromosome 4q25 and the development of AF. In the population examined, the genotypic frequencies were as follows: CC - 45 (56.2%), CT - 19 (23.8%), TT - 16 (20%), with value of Chi-Square (χ2) 24.496, df=2, p<0.001. Screening for SNPs could be a useful marker for the detection of patients predisposed to AF.

SummaryThe aim of the cross-sectional study was to estimate the absolute 10-year risk for fatal cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients with hypertension by Systematic Coronary Risk Estimation (SCORE). The study was carried out in 2016 as part of Project No 4/2016. Ninety-one patients aged 40-89 years were included. The mean age of the sample was 66.0±11.0, and 44.0% were males. Information of the patients' risk pro le included about age, gender, blood pressure, smoking and total cholesterol. The patients with hypertension were strati ed according to a 10-year absolute risk of CVD. Data were processed by Statistical Package for Social Science versions 19.0 (SPSS.v.19.0). Over twothirds of the patients had 1 stage hypertension (31.9%) and 2 stage hypertension (37.4%). Median systolic blood pressure on admission to the clinics was 160 mg Hg, and median diastolic blood pressure was 90 mm Hg. Total serum cholesterol values exceeded 4.9 mmol/L in 64.0% of the patients. Smokers accounted for about one-fourth of the patients, most of them having smoked for 40 years. The mean number of risk factors for CVD was 3.0. Over 65% of the patients were found to be at a very high 10-year absolute risk of fatal CVD by SCORE. Cardiovascular risk assessment has important role in prevention of morbidity, premature death and disability of CVD.