[Perception of cardiovascular risk in an outpatient population of the Madrid Community]

INTRODUCTION

Cardiovascular diseases are responsible for the largest burden of global mortality. The study of the degree of knowledge of their population risk factors and cardiovascular risk is a priority preventive strategy.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A cross-sectional study with 369 people was performed. The sociodemographic variables were cardiovascular risk and perception as well as physical and anthropometric factors. The risk was stratified with the SCORE table.

RESULTS

A total of 49.6% were men and 50.4% were women. The proportion of diagnosis was 23.8% in HTA, 39% in hypercholesterolemia, 31.4% in smoking, 26.3% in obesity and 4.6% in diabetes. Concordance between perceived and real cardiovascular risk was very weak.

DISCUSSION

The population has good knowledge about diabetes and acceptable knowledge about hypertension, and hypercholesterolemia but knowledge in prediabetic states and perception of the associated cardiovascular risk is low.

Syphilis and human experimentation from World War II to the present: a historical perspective and reflections on ethics

Even after the Nuremberg code was published, research on syphilis often continued to fall far short of ethical standards. We review post-World War II research on this disease, focusing on the work carried out in Guatemala and Tuskegee. Over a thousand adults were deliberately inoculated with infectious material for syphilis, chancroid, and gonorrhea between 1946 and 1948 in Guatemala, and thousands of serologies were performed in individuals belonging to indigenous populations or sheltered in orphanages. The Tuskegee syphilis study, conducted by the US Public Health Service, took place between 1932 and 1972 with the aim of following the natural history of the disease when left untreated. The subjects belonged to a rural black population and the study was not halted when effective treatment for syphilis became available in 1945.

Syphilis and human experimentation from the first appearance of the disease to World War II: a historical perspective and reflections on ethics

Physicians have conducted research on syphilis for centuries, seeking to understand its etiology and the means of transmission as well as find ways to prevent and cure the disease. Their research practices often strayed from today's ethical standards. In this paper we review ethical aspects of the long history of research on syphilis with emphasis on the experiments performed in the 20th century. The description of research around the time of World War II covers medical experiments carried out in US prisons and in the experimentation centers established by Japanese doctors in occupied territory, as well as experiments in Nazi Germany and the treatment of syphilitics there.

[Nazism and medicine. Learning from history]

Between 1933-1945 in Nazi Germany, physicians and other professional care providers participated in forced sterilization of patients who were carriers of genetic origin diseases and psychiatric disorders, extermination of children and adults with congenital and mental diseases, "scientific and pseudoscientific" medical experiments without consent and mass extermination of people based on their religion, political, cultural or sexual identity (Jews, gypsies, homosexuals). At present, the same ethical issues present during Nazi Period (research limits, end-life decisions, role of the physician as state or health system servant, and genetic research) continue to be present in routine medical care. Having knowledge of the past and the role played by Nazi doctors reinforces the necessary emphasis on bioethics and professionalism within the training of professional health providers.