Although there has been an observed progress in the treatment of hypertension, its prevalence remains elevated and constitutes a leading cause of cardiovascular disease development. Resistant hypertension is a challenge for clinicians, as the available treatment options have reduced success. Physical activity and exercise training play an important role in the management of blood pressure. The importance of physical activity and exercise training as part of a comprehensive lifestyle intervention is acknowledged by several professional organizations in their recommendations/guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension. Aerobic exercise, dynamic resistance exercise, and concurrent training – the combination of dynamic resistance and aerobic exercise training in the same exercise session or on separate days – has been demonstrated to reduce blood pressure and help in the management of hypertension. The present review draws attention to the importance of exercise training in the management of blood pressure in both hypertension and resistant hypertension individuals.

Central arterial pulse pressure monitoring has been considered a key factor in hypertension assessment and cardiovascular prevention. In this paper, it is presented an intensity-based plastic optical fiber sensor for noninvasive monitoring of the carotid pulse waveform. The advantages of this sensing method are the low implementation cost, high robustness, and the signal processing simplicity. The sensor showed a suitable sensitivity to movements up to 370 μm, with a displacement resolution of 0.1 μm. As preliminary proof of concept, the sensor was used to detect the arterial pulse waveform in some human subjects, allowing the assessment of key indexes for heart and arterial stiffness evaluation, such as augmentation index, subendocardial viability ratio, and ejection duration.

We investigated the cardiovascular (CV) prognostic value of 24-h ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and blood pressure (BP) during the six 4-h periods of the 24-h ABP length in a cohort of 1200 Portuguese hypertensive patients (aged 51±12 years) without earlier CV events. The presence of CV events were followed for 9.833 patient years and analyzed using a cox hazard model. During the 15.2 (mean 8.2) years follow-up, there were 152 CV events (11% fatal) including 79 strokes and 52 coronary events. After adjustment for risk factors and office BP (OBP), a 1-standard deviation increment of 24-h, daytime and night-time systolic BP (SBP) significantly predicted any CV event with hazard ratios (HR) 1.41, 1.33 and 1.57, respectively, and stroke with HR 1.67, 1.58, 1.67, respectively (all P<0.01), but not coronary events. Prognostic significance of these SBP values and of night-time ABP persisted after adjustment for diastolic BP and daytime ABP, respectively, whereas the opposite did not occur. SBP night-time fall (%) inversely predicted total CV events after adjustment for diastolic BP night-time fall. Among all six 4-h periods of 24-h, increment of SBP during the first 4 h of night-time was the most powerful predictor of any CV event (HR 1.64) and stroke (HR 2.02) (both P<0.01) even after adjustment for daytime and 24-h BP. In predicting CV events and stroke, ABP is superior to office BP, ABP systolic is superior to ABP diastolic, and night-time BP is superior to daytime BP particularly during the first 4 h of sleep.

Background. Upper respiratory tract infection (URTI), lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) and acute otitis media (AOM) are common in children attending day care centres. Objectives. This study aimed to characterize the risk factors of URTI, LRTI and AOM in children attending day care. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted in children aged up to 3 years (n = 152) of six day care centres in Porto. Logistic regression was used on independent variables: mother-related, household-related, child-related and day care-related risk factors as predictors of the dependent variables: URTI, LRTI and AOM. Results. The risk of URTI increased as the number of children decreased [odds ratio (OR) = 0.620, 95% CI = 0.411–0.935], as the area per child decreased (OR = 0.434, 95% CI = 0.206–0.914) and as the disinfection of WC/diapers-change increased (OR = 2.56, 95% CI = 1.089–6.017). There was a higher risk of URTI if nasal aspirators (OR = 6.763, 95% CI = 1.022–44.753), rather than physiologic serum (OR = 5.296, 95% CI = 1.097–25.559), were used at day care centres. The risk of LRTI increased as the household size decreased (OR = 0.213, 95% CI = 0.048–0.937) and it was higher if the child had no siblings (OR = 7.831, 95% CI = 1.065–57.578). The risk of LRTI was higher if the child was not exclusively breastfed (OR = 24.612, 95% CI = 1.108–546.530) and the risk increased as the duration of exclusive breastfeeding decreased (OR = 0.396, 95% CI = 0.170–0.920). The risk of AOM increased as the birth body mass index (OR = 2.247, 95% CI = 1.011–4.992) and weight (OR = 1.607, 95% CI = 1.014–2.545) increased and if nasal aspirators were used (OR = 6.763, 95% CI = 1.022–44.753). Conclusion. URTI were related with day care centres’ risk factors, LRTI were associated with mother-related and household-related risk factors and AOM was connected with child-related risk factors.