[Affective temperaments (cyclothymic, hypertymic, depressive, anxious, irritable) are stable parts of personality and after adolescent only their minor changes are detectable. Their connections with psychopathology is well-described; depressive temperament plays role in major depression, cyclothymic temperament in bipolar II disorder, while hyperthymic temperament in bipolar I disorder. Moreover, scientific data of the last decade suggest, that affective temperaments are also associated with somatic diseases. Cyclothymic temperament is supposed to have the closest connection with hypertension. The prevalence of hypertension is higher parallel with the presence of dominant cyclothymic affective temperament and in this condition the frequency of cardiovascular complications in hypertensive patients was also described to be higher. In chronic hypertensive patients cyclothymic temperament score is positively associated with systolic blood pressure and in women with the earlier development of hypertension. The background of these associations is probably based on the more prevalent presence of common risk factors (smoking, obesity, alcoholism) with more pronounced cyclothymic temperament. The scientific importance of the research of the associations of personality traits including affective temperaments with somatic disorders can help in the identification of higher risk patient subgroups.]

[The clinical application of statins has opened new perspectives in the therapy of atherosclerosis. Clinical studies have provided firm evidence that the achievement of the recommended lipid values in cardiovascular patients stops, or even reverses, the progression of atherosclerosis. Beside the cholesterol lowering effect this result is due to a complex vasoprotective, socalled pleiotropic mechanism. In the past two years a number of interventional trials confirmed that the lower the low density lipoprotein cholesterol level is reduced to, the lower the patient's cardiovascular risk. Based on international epidemiological trials the target value of the low density lipoprotein cholesterol of the most seriously ill, very high risk patients was defined as 1.8 mmol/l. The available statin preparations have only been able to achieve this low level of low density lipoprotein cholesterol in a portion of patients. Rosuvastatin, a recently developed statin derivative, however, can be successfully used even in monotherapy to achieve the target low density lipoprotein cholesterol value in the majority of patients with high cardiovascular risk. As part of the Galaxy program, a large study on the antiinflammatory and antiatherosclerotic properties of rosuvastatin will be conducted in the near future.]

[Administration of the alpha-glucosidase enzyme inhibitor acarbose leads to a prolonged absorption of carbohydrates, which has a smoothing effect on blood glucose excursions, and results in a more even daily blood glucose profile. The glucose lowering effect is mainly due to the reduction of postprandial blood glucose levels. Non-glycaemic effects of acarbose, including those on blood pressure, lipids and the coagulation system are also clearly beneficial. According to the available data, the preparation also reduces cardiovascular risk. If used as a monotherapy, acarbose does not cause hypoglycaemia. Flatulence and diaorrhea represent the main side effects. From a professional point of view, acarbose should be given if postprandial blood glucose excursions exceed 2.2 mmol/l.]

[Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is endemic affecting 850 million people worldwide. Adequate antihypertensive treatment slows the progression of the kidney disease and also decreases the mortality of this population. Because of the comorbidities and the high cardiovascular risk beta-blockers have to be administered frequently in these patients. Carvedilol is a 3rd generation non-selective beta-blocker with alpha- 1 receptor blocking and antioxidant properties. It is metabolically neutral, it does not increase the risk of new onset diabetes and it does not increase the patients’ body weight. In some animal models of CKD and in several human CKD studies carvedilol has shown to have nephroprotective properties and it also decreased the cardiovascular risk in combination therapies.]

[Statins have become crucial components of the therapy of cardiovascular diseases. Beyond their cholesterol-lowering effect, statins turned out to have further beneficial effects on various vascular mechanisms. One of the best known effects is antithrombotic capacity, which is related partly to platelet function and partly to the coagulation cascade. Besides experimental observations, interventional clinical trials have also demonstrated that statins have an antithrombotic effect both in arterial and venous thrombosis. Regarding the effects of statins on dementia, previous studies with relatively small sample sizes had controversial results. Recently, two observational studies of tens of thousands of elderly patients reported that statins reduce the incidence of nonvascular dementia. Evaluation of the data revealed that statins have pleiotropic effects in this case, too. The results discussed here shed light on new benefits of statin therapy used for reducing cardiovascular mortality, namely the prevention of thrombotic events and dementia. These benefits are related to the antithrombotic and anti-inflammatoric capacity of statins.]