BACKGROUND Transient receptor potential vanilloid 2 is a calcium channel activated by probenecid. Probenecid is a Food and Drug Administration-approved uricosuric drug that has recently been shown to induce positive lusitropic and inotropic effects in animal models through cardiomyocyte transient receptor potential vanilloid 2 activation. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that or...

OBJECTIVES We evaluated the ability of two-dimensional speckle tracking strain echocardiography to detect left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction as compared with LV ejection fraction (EF) in healthy subjects following acute alcohol intoxication. METHODS AND RESULTS In total, 25 healthy subjects were investigated using echocardiography 4-6 hours after the onset of alcohol intoxication at a...

The left ventricular dimension and posterior wall dynamics were studied by computer assisted analysis ofM mode echocardiography in 25 normal children (group 1) and 32 transfusion dependent children with ,1 thalassaemia major who had no evidence of heart failure (group 2). Twenty seven of those in group 2 remained well but five died of cardiac decompensation within 12 months. Compared with group...

This study was designed to measure nitrite/nitrate and cytokine levels of serum obtained from septic shock patients and to describe potential depressant effects of human septic serum on rat cardiomyocytes. Serum was prepared from 10 non-septic patients and 10 patients with documented septic shock. Adult rat ventricular myocytes were exposed to 20 % serum in the medium. Cardiomyocyte contractili...

With aging, structural and functional changes occur in the myocardium without obvious impairment of systolic left ventricular (LV) function. Transmural differences in myocardial vulnerability for these changes may result in increase of transmural inhomogeneity in contractile myofiber function. Subendocardial fibrosis and impairment of subendocardial perfusion due to hypertension might change th...

Myosin light chain 2 (MLC2) is a small protein in the myosin complex, regulating muscle contractile function by modulating Ca(2+) sensitivity of myofilaments. MLC2 can be modified by phosphorylation and O-GlcNAcylation, two reversible and dynamic posttranslational modifications. The slow isoform of MLC2 (sMLC2) is dephosphorylated in soleus muscle during in situ loaded shortening contractions, ...

Objective: To evaluate left ventricular morphology and function in a large population of patients with β thalassaemia. Design: Echo Doppler assessment of left ventricular function and correlation of cardiovascular data with haematological data. Setting: Thalassaemia unit in a tertiary referral centre. Patients: 197 young adults with β thalassaemia, following an adequate transfusional and chelat...

BACKGROUND The index of myocardial performance has prognostic power in patients with cardiomyopathy and following myocardial infarction. As the index of myocardial performance has been shown to be preload and afterload dependent, the effect of altering contractility on IMP and its components with left ventricular dysfunction has been incompletely delineated. METHODS Chronic left ventricular d...