[Aneurysms of the common trunk, anterior descending and right coronary artery in a 33 years old man with acute myocardial infarction. A case report]. / Aneurismi del tronco comune, discendente anteriore e arteria coronaria destra in un uomo di 33 anni con infarto acuto del miocardio. Caso clinico.

Coronary artery aneurysms are often incidental findings during coronary angiography; they are mostly secondary to atherosclerosis or vasculitis, they are rarely congenital. Right coronary circumflex and anterior descending arteries are usually involved but only few cases of aneurysms of left main coronary artery are reported. A case of coronary artery aneurysms is described involving left main, right and anterior descending coronary arteries, probably secondary to atypical Kawasaki disease in a 33 years old man with acute myocardial infarction.

[Tophaceous gout in plurimetabolic syndrome]. / Gotta tofacea nell'ambito della sindrome plurimetabolica.

Aim of this paper is to describe and discuss, on the basis of the available current literature, the case of a female patient affected by a tophaceous gout associated with plurimetabolic syndrome. Hyperuricemia and gout may be seen today in all the populations of developed countries, with increasing frequency on the last fifty years. Increased production or reduced urinary excretion of uric acid (and hypoxanthine and xanthine) are the most important pathogenetic mechanisms of primary or secondary hyperuricemia. Gout is an acute rheumatic disorder (characterized by a limited range of manifestations) which occurs in humans in connection with deposition of crystals of monosodium urate (the final product of purine metabolism) in the articular and soft periarticular tissues. Hyperuricemia and/or gout are often associated with hyperinsulinemia, obesity, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipemia, hypertension and atherosclerosis to form the syndrome called "Plurimetabolic syndrome" or "Syndrome X". Here we report the clinical case of a 64-year-old female patient who had android obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia and hyperuricemia and had been suffering (over many years) from intermittent episodes of severe pain and inflammatory joint swelling (first metacarpo- and metatarso-phalangeal joints) with development of pronounced multiple tophi in bone articular and soft periarticular tissues. Hyperuricemia and acute episodes had never been treated with anti-hyperuricemic drugs because gouty arthritis had never been diagnosed. This severe tophaceous gout associated to multiple metabolic disorders prompted us to present knowledge on gout and to focus on the interrelationships between hyperuricemia and/or gout and plurimetabolic syndrome, important risk factors for coronary heart disease.

Significance of microalbuminuria in atherosclerotic vascular disease.

Microalbuminuria is considered as a sign of high risk of renal disease in type 1 diabetes mellitus, and of cardiovascular disease in types 1 and 2 diabetes. In recent years numerous studies have suggested that microalbuminuria may be associated with atherosclerotic vascular disease, independently from diabetes mellitus. The presence of microalbuminuria was investigated in 30 patients suffering from atherosclerotic vascular disease: ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease or arterial disease of the lower extremities. They were divided into two groups similar in age: 13 with type 2 diabetes mellitus, and 17 without diabetes. The aim of the research was to reveal eventually different prevalence of microalbuminuria in patients with vascular disease associated with diabetes or without diabetes. Microalbuminuria was present in 52.9% of the non diabetic patients and in 76.9% of the diabetics, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (in Mann-Whitney test p = 0.18; Chi-square test = 0.83; p = 0.3). No significant correlation was found between microalbuminuria and fibrinogen, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides. The hypertensive patients presented higher mean values of microalbuminuria than the normotensive ones (3.2 +/- 3.8 and 2.8 +/- 4.4 mg %, respectively), but the difference was again not significant (t = 0.25; p = 0.8). In the light of this research microalbuminuria seems to be a condition associated with atherosclerotic vascular disease, independently from the presence of diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension.