In today's world, the growth of technical progress has increased the number of people with obesity, which is one of the main risk factors for the development of acute myocardial infarction (MI). Objective: To evaluate the effect of obesity on some clinical and anthropometric characteristics in patients with acute MI. Material and Methods: A special questionnaire - a “registry card” was developed for monitoring patients with acute MI and collecting the necessary and complete information from employees of the Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) Prevention Department. The presented article describes the data of a preliminary analysis of patients with acute MI treated in the clinic. Of the 202 people, 191 (94.6%) had a body mass index (BMI) calculated. Depending on the level of BMI, three groups were selected: 1 g (BMI < 25 kg/m2) - 36 (18.8% of 191) patients with acute MI with normal weight (control group); 2 g (BMI = 25–30 kg/m2) - 84 (44.0% of 191) overweight people; 3 g (BMI > 30 kg/m2) - 71 (37.2% of 191) people with obesity. Differences were considered significant at p < 0.05. Results: Despite the fact that acute MI developed in women 2.6 times less frequently and 8.7 years later in age than in men, nevertheless, obesity in women was recorded more often, while in men overweight prevailed. In acute MI between the age of the respondents and the presence of increased weight, an inverse relationship was revealed (p > 0.05), i.e., as the weight category increased, the age of the patients decreased. In patients with MI, as the weight increased, there was an increase in comorbid pathology, especially associated with impaired carbohydrate metabolism (p < 0.0001). A more severe form of MI (STEMI) was more often recorded in persons with a BMI > 25 kg/m2, while the front wall was the most vulnerable to the development of acute MI, regardless of the weight category of patients. The back wall was involved in the pathological process both in individuals with overweight and in patients with obesity. The apical segment in the largest number of cases was only affected in people with obesity. Conclusion: Obesity is a kind of epidemic of modern society. Its effects on the quality of life, prognosis, and effectiveness of conservative or minimally invasive treatment methods in patients with acute cardiovascular catastrophes, such as acute MI, are still a very controversial issue that requires furthermore in-depth study and analysis.

Introduction: Strokes constitute a public health problem. Ischemic strokes are caused by cardioembolic diseases in 20% of cases. We have realized this study in order to situate the role of transesophageal echocardiography in the search of cardioembolic diseases during ischemic strokes. Materials and Methods: We have realized a retrospective study in the Cardiology Department of “Hopital Général de Grand Yoff” at Dakar, during two years from June 2003 to July 2005. Our patients received benefits from medical examination, biological exams, an ECG, a recording ECG, a transesophageal echocardiography, transthoracic echocardiography, a brain scan and echodoppler of neck vessels. Results: Fifty-six cases have been identified. The average age was of 60.3 ± 14.3 years (extremes: 21–87 years). The sex-ratio (men over women) was of 0.75. The cardiovascular risk factors were dominated by blood hypertension and diabetes. On the standard electrocardiogram, we noted eleven cases of atrial fibrillation and one case of atrial flutter. Two patients have presented a paroxystic atrial fibrillation on recording electrocardiogram and six (10.7%), either a significative stenosis or carotid thrombosis at neck vessels echodoppler. The board number V is the summery of the etiology of ischemic strokes found by transesophageal echocardiography.