The Relationship Between Cardiovascular Disease Risk and Major Depression

Introduction

Cardiovascular risk in depression has been investigated in small clinical samples and population-based studies revealing inconclusive results. However, cardiovascular risk in drug-naive depressed patients has not been tested extensively.

Methods

Body mass index-based Framingham Cardiovascular Risk Scores and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) levels were used to assess the risk of cardiovascular disease in drug-naive depressed patients and healthy volunteers.

Conclusion

There were no significant differences in Framingham Cardiovascular Risk Scores and individually assessed risk variables between patients and healthy controls (HC). Both groups were comparable in terms of sICAM-1.

Results

The widely recognized association between cardiovascular risk and major depression might be more prominent in older depressed patients and patients with recurring episodes.

Follow-up of lupus choroidopathy with optical coherence tomography

Abstract: A 36-year-old female followed with the diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus complained of bilateral visual loss. Ophthalmological examination revealed disc edema with irregular borders, edematous and pale retina with widespread cotton wool spots, intraretinal hemorrhages and serous retinal detachment in both eyes. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) scans showed intraretinal and subretinal fluid creating cystic cavities with central subfield macular thickness values of 994 and 912 µm in the right and left eye, respectively. The follow-up scans after the treatment with systemic steroid, acetylsalicylic acid and cyclosporine documented resolution of this fluid accumulation and a decrease in macular thickness measurements. These clearly demonstrated that OCT, which is a fast, objective and non-invasive technology, may be an adjunctive imaging tool for the diagnosis and follow-up of lupus choroidopathy.