Ninety-five patients studied were made up of 60 males and 35 females. Ninety-two controls, made up of 54 males and 38 females, were also studied. The majority of the patients were in the fifth decade, followed by the fourth and sixth decades (Table 1). Fourteen patients, made up of four with peripartum cardiac failure, three [...]

After approval by the Medical Ethical Committee of Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, 95 consecutive patients with hypertensive heart failure and 92 age-/sex-matched normotensive apparently healthy controls were recruited into the study. The demographic and clinical characteristics of these subjects were taken from history, physical examination, and routine laboratory investigations. Also included were patients who at [...]

INTRODUCTION
There is a growing awareness that congestive heart failure (CHF) caused by a predominant abnormality in diastolic function causes significant morbidity and mortality. In the natural course of hypertensive heart disease progression, diastolic dysfunction appears before systolic dysfunction in hypertensive heart failure. However, there are still some patients who come up with symptoms and signs [...]

Numerous published reports have documented ethnic differences in the receipt and outcomes of care between African-American and Caucasian patients in a variety of settings. Many of these studies have been based upon administrative data relating to hospitalization. This analysis represents one of the few attempts to investigate the existence of such differences in the primary [...]

At enrollment into ACQUIP, the health-screening questionnaire was sent to 55,222 patients, of whom 32,149 were Caucasian and 12,816 were African-American. A total of 31,360 were returned, including 10,385 Caucasian and African-American patients, who reported ischemic heart disease and were sent the SAQ. Responses were received from 7,985 of these patients, of whom 6,704 (84.0%) [...]

Design
We performed a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data collected as part of the Ambulatory Care Quality Improvement Project (ACQUIP). ACQUIP was a multicenter, group-randomized trial designed to determine whether health outcomes and satisfaction with care could be improved by giving primary care providers access to regular, systematic assessments of their patients’ health and functional status, [...]

INTRODUCTION
In several settings, African Americans appear to receive less intense management of ischemic heart disease compared with Caucasians. Explanations of this disparity based on clinical risk factors, socioeconomic factors, geographic location, geographic complexity, health insurance status, and multifactorial provider/patient preferences have been explored. Because health services are available to eligible veterans irrespective of whether they [...]