BACKGROUND Endothelial dysfunction of coronary arteries with impaired vasodilation has been reported in patients with arterial hypertension. However, the effect of dynamic exercise on coronary vasomotion of a stenotic vessel segment before and after PTCA has not yet been evaluated in these patients. METHODS AND RESULTS Coronary vasomotion of a normal and a stenotic vessel segment was studied ...

Introduction: Most acute coronary syndromes result from rupture of vulnerable plaques [1]. As a result, it’s clinically very important to assess the vulnerability of coronary plaque. While studies have shown that inflammation plays a major role in plaque rupture, it is crucial to be able to evaluate the extent of inflammation of coronary vessel wall plaque. Contrast-enhanced studies have shown ...

BACKGROUND Coronary collateral flow is an alternative source of myocardial perfusion in patients with totally occluded coronary arteries. Clinical evaluation of collateral flow has been limited by the need of invasive measurements. We investigated whether noninvasive coronary computed tomographic angiography can evaluate the angiographic extent of coronary collateral flow. METHODS AND RESULTS...

The morphometry (diameters, length, and angles) of coronary arteries is related to their function. A simple, easy, and accurate image-based method to seamlessly extract the morphometry for coronary arteries is of significant value for understanding the structure-function relation. Here, the morphometry of large (> or = 1 mm in diameter) coronary arteries was extracted from computed tomography (...

Purpose. We evaluated the influence of the time between low-dose gadolinium (Gd) contrast administration and coronary vessel wall enhancement (LGE) detected by 3T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in healthy subjects and patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Materials and Methods. Four healthy subjects (4 men, mean age 29 ± 3 years and eleven CAD patients (6 women, mean age 61 ± 10 years)...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the effect of intracoronary dipyridamole on the incidence of abrupt vessel closure, myocardial infarction, necessity for bypass grafting, and death following percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). PATIENTS Patients were randomly allocated to receive either conventional pretreatment (heparin 15 000 IU and aspirin 500 mg intravenously) or additional int...

BACKGROUND Arterial calcium as measured by 64-slice computed tomography coronary angiography (64-CT) is a reliable predictor of cardiovascular disease risk. Lipid-rich plaques with lower degrees of calcification may pose greater risk for adverse coronary events than more stabilized calcified plaques as a result of the increased risk of plaque rupture, migration, and subsequent acute coronary sy...

A 13 year old boy is described with hypereosinophilia associated with Kimura’s disease, who showed repeated life threatening syncopal attacks during daily activities or at rest. Coronary arteriography demonstrated small aneurysms with irregular vessel walls of both coronary arteries, and the absence of organic stenotic lesions. Infusion of a minimal dose of ergonovine into the right coronary ar...