The ECG remains the pre-eminent test for myocardial ischaemia, directing therapeutic management and prognostic stratification.

Background: Although the concept of early restoration of coronary bloodflow constitutes an important factor to reduce the injury caused by myocardial ischaemia, reperfusion in itself can aggravate the damage to myocardial tissue, a phenomenon denoted myocardial reperfusion injury. Aims: To investigate whether two different pharmacological interventions, cyclosporine A (CsA) and the novel enkeph...

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) have the potential to treat many myocardial diseases. We investigated whether these multipotent stem cells derived from bone marrow could be administered safely into the coronary circulation of healthy dogs. We injected about 0.5 million cells per kg bodyweight of early passage autologous MSCs into the left circumflex coronary artery of anaesthetised dogs. Durin...

Cardiac complications are a major cause of morbidity and mortality after non-cardiac surgery. 64 However, the exact nature of perioperative myocardial injury remains elusive and an area of continued debate and controversy. 64 If triggers of perioperative myocardial ischaemic events could be identi®ed, appropriately taken preventive measures might improve perioperative cardiac outcome. Identi®ca...

BACKGROUND In patients with acute myocardial infarction, restoration of coronary flow by primary coronary intervention (PCI) can lead to profound ischaemia-reperfusion injury with detrimental effects on myocardial salvage. Non-invasive assessment of interstitial myocardial haemorrhage by T2* cardiac MRI (T2*-CMR) provides a novel and specific biomarker of severe reperfusion injury which may be ...

OBJECTIVES To see whether autonomic regulatory mechanisms play a part in transient myocardial ischaemia in patients treated with beta blockers. DESIGN Prospective study. SETTING Outpatients' clinic. PATIENTS 51 consecutive patients with angiographically documented coronary artery disease, stable angina, and transient myocardial ischaemia despite beta blockade. INTERVENTIONS 24 hour ambu...

AIMS Epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) provides symptom relief in refractory angina pectoris, but its mechanism of action remains incompletely understood. We studied effects of short-term SCS therapy on myocardial ischaemia tolerance, myocardial perfusion reserve (MPR), and endothelium-mediated vasodilatation induced by cold pressor test (CPT) in patients with refractory angina pectoris. ...

A clinical and experimental ultrasound study. Acknowledgement List of papers Abbreviations 1. Introduction 1.1 Regional myocardial contraction – effects of ischaemia 1.2 Detection of regional myocardial dysfunction by standard echocardiography 1.3 The tissue Doppler modalities 2. Aims of the study 2.