Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the beneficial effects of balneotherapy in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).
Background: Some reports have shown that balneotherapy reduces systemic blood pressure in healthy volunteers. However, it is not clear whether balneotherapy improves the status of CHF. We hypothesized that hyperthermia using hot water would improve cardiac and peripheral endothelial function and clinical symptoms.
Methods: Twenty-six patients with chronic systolic heart failure classified as New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional status II or III were divided into two groups. In the balneotherapy group, patients were immersed in a hot spring at 40°C for 10min daily for two weeks; in the control group, patients took a daily shower. We measured plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA). The left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and cardiothoracic ratio (CTR) were evaluated by echocardiography and chest radiography, respectively. Brachial-ankle pulse-wave velocity (baPWV) was measured non-invasively using an automatic device.
Results: Clinical symptoms were improved after two weeks of hot spring therapy. Although heart rate and CTR did not change, clinical symptom and LVEF improved and mean blood pressure, BNP, ADMA and PWV significantly decreased.
Conclusions: Repeated immersion in a hot spring improves peripheral vascular endothelial function, thus leading to improvement of clinical activity and symptoms in patients with CHF.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of short-term living and training at an altitude of 1, 300 to 1, 800 m on physiological responses of high school elite endurance athletes. Fifteen male and seven female senior high school elite athletes, aged from 15 to 18, from three different sports (cross-country skiing, long-distance running and endurance cycling), participated in our study. The short-term (6 days) altitude exposure did not elicit abnormal responses of body tempera-ture, body weight, blood pressure or urine samples. There were also no significant changes in blood parameters examined before and after altitude exposure. Resting heart rate (HR) increased at altitude and presented an initial peak value followed by a steady decline on the following days of altitude exposure. Blood lactate concentration and exercise peak llR examined by submaximal 20-m shuttle run test decreased after the ascent to altitude and still showed lower values at postaltitude than at prealtitude. We conclude that 6-day living and training at an altitude of 1, 300 to 1, 800 m elicits positive decrements of exercise blood lactate and exercise peak HR as well as adaptive changes of resting IlR for these high school elite endurance athletes, which are probably related to an attenuation of muscle glycogen utilization and alterations in the autonomic neural system taken at altitude.

Dengue fever (DF) is a major public health concern in the Dominican Republic. In recent years, several epidemics of DF have been reported to the Pan American Health Office (PAHO), but the extent of the epidemics has not been clearly understood yet. Therefore, we conducted a nationwide seroepidemiology of dengue (DEN) infection. At the same time, we conducted an interview survey to assess public awareness regarding the disease. The serum samples were collected at seven main cities in the Dominican Republic and screened for DEN antibody with a commercial ELISA kit. A total of 2007 serum specimens were examined. The prevalence of DEN antibody in the seven cities varied between 43.1 and 89.7%. Neutralization (N) test carried out on the ELISA-positive serum from Samana, one of the high antibody-prevalent cities, revealed that all the sera showed positive to at least two DEN serotypes. Geometric mean N titers against DEN-1, 2, 3 and 4 were 40.5, 463.7, 59.9 and 454.4 respectively. No difference in antibody prevalence was observed between males and females. It appeared that a high level of awareness regarding DF did little affect DEN prevalence. Strong, concrete public health strategies that motivate the local community to combat DF are required.