Intracardiac surgical procedures are best carried out when the heart is still and bloodless. This condition, however, produces myocardial cellular damage with loss of contractility and compliance unless some protection can be provided. Myocardial contractility and compliance is best studied by isovolumic ventricular function tests, which were used to evaluate the protective effect of methylpred...

patients with valvular heart disease suffer from atrial fibrillation for more than 12 months after valve surgery and have a low probability of remaining in sinus rhythm. we performed an intra-operative procedure similar to surgical maze ііі procedure for conversion of this arrhythmia to sinus rhythm. we did this study to evaluate the efficacy of this procedure to restore the sinus rhythm in pat...

In the standard accepted concept, contractility is the intrinsic ability of heart muscle to generate force and to shorten, independently of changes in the preload or afterload with fixed heart rates. At molecular level the crux of the contractile process lies in the changing concentrations of Ca2+ ions in the myocardial cytosol. Ca2+ ions enter through the calcium channel that opens in response...

Wang, Qing, Hans R. Brunner, and Michel Burnier. Determination of cardiac contractility in awake unsedated mice with a fluidfilled catheter. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 286: H806–H814, 2004. First published September 25, 2003; 10.1152/ajpheart.00291.2003.— Today, cardiac contractility in mice is exclusively measured under anesthesia or in sedated animals because the catheters available are ...

hypertonic saline solution can absorb part of the intracellular fluid volume into the extracellular space. the effects of this solution on the cardiovascular system are increased coronary flow and increased left ventricular contraction, without sympathetic system activation. this study was designed to assess the effects of hypertonic saline solution in open heart surgery and to compare it with ...

Historically there has been intense interest in restoring to the failing heart the ability to improve contractility to normal levels. This concept, which has been pursued with almost religious zeal for the last half century, is based on the intuitive assumption that the defect in heart failure resides at the end point, which is defective myocyte contraction. This concept was given additional im...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Agents having a positive inotropic effect on the heart are widely used for the treatment of heart failure. However, these agents have the side effect of altering heart rate. It has been established that peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor δ (PPARδ) is mediated in cardiac contraction, however the effect on heart rate is unknown. Thus, we used an agonist of PPARδ, GW074...

BACKGROUND Ischemic preconditioning is a method that prepares and protects cells to tolerate a long period of ischemia with the least possible injury. OBJECTIVES Evaluate the influence of ischemic preconditioning over left ventricular function during off-pump myocardial revascularization. METHOD Forty patients with clinical indication for off-pump myocardial revascularization were randomize...