Placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of hemodilution in peripheral occlusive arterial disease

Favorable impact of a vegan diet with exercise on hemorheology: implications for control of diabetic neuropathy

A little-noticed clinical report indicates that a low-fat, whole-food vegan diet, coupled with daily walking exercise, leads to rapid remission of neuropathic pain in the majority of type 2 diabetics expressing this complication. Concurrent marked improvements in glycemic control presumably contribute to this benefit, but are unlikely to be solely responsible. Consideration should be given to the possibility that improved blood rheology - decreased blood viscosity and increased blood filterability - plays a prominent role in mediating this effect. There is considerable evidence that neural hypoxia, secondary to impaired endoneurial microcirculatory perfusion, is a crucial etiologic factor in diabetic neuropathy; the unfavorable impact of diabetes on hemorheology would be expected to exacerbate endoneurial ischemia. Conversely, measures which improve blood fluidity would likely have a beneficial impact on diabetic neuropathy. There is indeed evidence that vegan diets, as well as exercise training, tend to decrease the viscosity of both whole blood and plasma; reductions in hematocrit and in fibrinogen may contribute to this effect. The fact that vegan diets decrease the white cell count is suggestive of an improvement in blood filterability as well; filterability improves with exercise training owing to an increase in erythrocyte deformability. Whether these measures influence the activation of leukocytes in diabetics - an important determinant of blood filterability - remains to be determined. There are various reasons for suspecting that a vegan diet can reduce risk for other major complications of diabetes - retinopathy, nephropathy, and macrovascular disease - independent of its tendency to improve glycemic control in type 2 patients. The vegan diet/exercise strategy represents a safe, 'low-tech' approach to managing diabetes that deserves far greater attention from medical researchers and practitioners.

Hemodilution reduces early reperfusion injury in an ex vivo rabbit lung preservation model

We sought to reduce early ischemia-reperfusion injury after lung preservation by an initial brief period of hemodilute reperfusion. Left lungs of New Zealand White rabbits were ventilated with room air and reperfused in an ex vivo ventilation-perfusion apparatus after 18 hours of storage at 10 degrees C. Lungs were randomly assigned to one of three groups (n = 6) according to the composition of initial reperfusate. In group 1 (control), preserved lungs were reperfused with whole blood for 20 minutes (hematocrit, 38%). In the experimental groups, blood was diluted to a hematocrit of 10% with Ringer's lactate (group 2) or low-potassium-dextran solution (group 3) for the first 10 minutes of reperfusion, followed immediately by whole blood for 10 minutes. Oxygen tension of left ventricular effluent at the end of the 20-minute assessment period was significantly higher in both hemodiluted groups (mean +/- standard error of the mean: group 2, 81.3 +/- 6.6 mmHg; group 3, 77.0 +/- 9.5 mmHg, versus Group 1, 46.3 +/- 7.4 mmHg; p < 0.006). Similarly, mean tracheal airway pressure was reduced in the hemodiluted groups, suggesting improved compliance (group 2; 3.1 +/- 0.3 mmHg; group 3, 2.8 +/- 0.6 mmHg; versus group 1, 6.5 +/- 1.4 mm Hg; p < 0.05). An initial 10-minute period of hemodilute reperfusion appears to reduce early pulmonary ischemia-reperfusion injury in this 18-hour ex vivo rabbit lung preservation model.

Hematocrit, blood pressure, and hypertension. The Gubbio Population Study

Baseline data from the Gubbio Population Study in north central Italy were used to investigate the relation of hematocrit to blood pressure and hypertension among 2,809 men and women aged 25-74 years. Independent of gender, age, and other confounders, the hypertensive group had a higher hematocrit than the nonhypertensive group (p less than 0.001). In comparison with the untreated hypertensive group, the hypertensive group being treated with diuretics or with other drugs only had similar mean hematocrit levels despite significantly lower blood pressures. Hematocrit was positively correlated with systolic pressure (r = 0.085, p less than 0.01 and r = 0.264, p less than 0.001 for men and women, respectively) and diastolic pressure (r = 0.214, p less than 0.001 and r = 0.266, p less than 0.001). In both sexes, whether or not the treated hypertensive group was included, age-adjusted prevalence of hypertension and average blood pressure were higher for persons in higher quintiles of hematocrit (p less than 0.001). The association of hematocrit with blood pressure and hypertension was significant and independent of several confounders. The regression coefficient of blood pressure on hematocrit ranged between 0.410 and 0.620 mm Hg per unit of hematocrit for systolic pressure and between 0.371 and 0.581 for diastolic pressure, depending on gender and whether the treated hypertensive group was included in multiple regression analysis. Based on exponentiation of the multiple logistic coefficient, prevalence of hypertension was at least two times greater for persons whose hematocrit levels were higher by 10 units.