The application of cardiac catheterization to the study of the human circulation (Forssmann, 1929; Cournand and Ranges, 1941) provided a new technique for obtaining information about the pulmonary circulation and also for the study of the physiological effects of congenital heart disease (Bing et al., 1947a; Dexter et al., 1947b; Cournand et al., 1949). Extensive studies have been made in which...

The mechanisms underlying the pulmonary arterial pressor response to hypoxia have been investigated by studying specimens of pulmonary and systemic vascular smooth muscle and the isolated pulmonary and systemic circulations. Hypoxia caused a unique and reversible loss of potassium and gain in sodium by pulmonary arterial smooth muscle that did not occur in pulmonary veins or systemic arteries. ...

background pulmonary artery banding (pab) is a technique of palliative surgical therapy used by congenital heart surgeons as a staged approach to operative correction of congenital heart defects. materials and methods we report 5- year experiences from january 2011 to january 2016 of imam reza hospital center (a tertiary referral hospital in mashhad city, north east of iran) that consist of 50 ...

BACKGROUND Although plasma endothelin concentrations are elevated in patients with pulmonary hypertension, the precise sites of endothelin production have not been defined. We investigated the endothelin production in the pulmonary circulation of patients with mitral stenosis and its effects on pulmonary vascular tone. METHODS AND RESULTS We measured plasma concentrations of endothelin-1, ang...

BACKGROUND The Fontan circulation is a palliation for patients with a functionally univentricular heart. It is characterized by gradual attrition over time. An increase in pulmonary vascular resistance could be a key factor in the long-term failure of the Fontan circulation. In this study we aimed to identify pulmonary vascular remodeling in patients with a Fontan circulation. METHODS Pulmona...

Patients with single ventricle are often quite ill and present complex management dilemmas. The distribution of blood flow to the systemic and pulmonary circulations, which in this patient population are in parallel rather than series, depends primarily upon the relative resistances of the respective vascular beds. The entire cardiac output is managed by the single ventricle and must somehow di...