W HILE animal studies have demonstrated that digitalis enhances the force of contraction of the nonfailing heart,'X the effects of this agent on ventricular contractility of the normal human heart are as yet unsettled. In the absence of clinical heart failure, digitalis administration is associated with either a slight decrease -9 or no significant change in cardiac output.10-'4 Such observatio...

EARLY DETECTION of impaired relaxation has been emphasized recently for the evaluation of global and regional ventricular function in patients with heart disease. Although early relaxation abnormalities have been found in various cardiac diseases, the underlying mechanisms are not as yet fully understood. Given the recent progress in our understanding of relaxation of the heart,' these mechanis...

p38 Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) is one of the most ancient signaling molecules and is involved in multiple cellular processes, including cell proliferation, cell growth, and cell death. In the heart, enhanced activation of p38 MAPK is associated with ischemia/reperfusion injury and the onset of heart failure. In the present study, we investigated the function of p38 MAPK in regulati...

Manipulating Cardiac Contractility in Heart Failure : Data From Mice and Men Print ISSN: 0009-7322. Online ISSN: 1524-4539 Copyright © 2004 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. is published by the American Heart Association, 7272 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX 75231 Circulation doi: 10.1161/01.CIR.0000111581.15521.F5 2004;109:150-158 Circulation. http://circ.ahajournals.org/cont...

Reports have shown the antioxidant, hypotensive, hypolipidemic and vasodilatory effects of grape (Vitis vinifera L.) seed extract. We have recently shown the relaxatory effect of grape leaf extract on rat uterus and reduction of frog heart rate and contractility. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relaxant effect of Vitis vinifera leaf hydroalcoholic extract (VLHE) on rat thora...

The myocardial kinetics of meperidine and the relationship between these kinetics and the effect of meperidine on myocardial contractility (maximum positive rate of change of left ventricular pressure) were examined by analysis of previously published data collected in sheep after the i.v. injection of 100 mg of meperidine over 1 s. There was significant hysteresis between reductions in myocard...

Transgenic animal models have provided a vital insight into the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease, but functional cardiac assessment is often limited by high heart rates and small heart size. We hypothesized that in the presence of concentric left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy (LVH), load-sensitive measures of contractility may be misinterpreted as overestimating global cardiac function, be...

BACKGROUND Ovarian sex hormones (OSHs) are implicated in cardiovascular function. It has been shown that OSHs play an important role in the long term regulation of cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) function and contractility, although early effects of OSHs deprivation on myocardial contractility have not yet been determined. This study evaluated the early and late effects of OSHs deficiency o...

The slope of the stroke work (SW)-pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) relation may be negative in congestive heart failure (CHF), implying decreased contractility based on the premise that PCWP is simply related to left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic volume. We hypothesized that the negative slope is explained by decreased transmural LV end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP), despite the increase...

Beta1- and beta2-adrenoceptors in heart muscle cells mediate the catecholamine-induced increase in the force and frequency of cardiac contraction. Recently, in addition, we demonstrated the functional expression of beta3-adrenoceptors in the human heart. Their stimulation, in marked contrast with that of beta1- and beta2-adrenoceptors, induces a decrease in contractility through presently unkno...