Comparative studies of glycogen content, rate of glycolysis, and lactic acid accumulation were carried out over a 2 hour period in potassium-arrested hearts excised from dogs with and without preliminary infusion of glucose and insulin. Glycogen consumption occurred at 60 to 100 per cent of the expected rate for 60 min., but was subsequently much less in both groups of animals. Lactic acid accu...

Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a cardiac hormone with natriuretic activity. The aim of this study was to investigate the cardiovascular effects of pathophysiological levels of BNP on central hemodynamics, cardiac function, renal hemodynamics and function, and microvascular hemodynamics in healthy subjects. In this double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study, we intravenously infused BN...

BACKGROUND One of the side effects of interleukin 2 (IL-2) cancer immunotherapy in humans is the vascular leak syndrome, which is frequently associated with depression of myocardial function, myocarditis, and myocardial necrosis. METHODS AND RESULTS To investigate this cardiotoxicity, IL-2 (three doses of 5 x 10(5) Cetus units/day i.p.) was given to rats for 2, 3, or 5 days. Heart, lung, live...

The microvascular effects and hemodynamic events following exposure to normobaric hyperoxia (because of inspiration of 100% O2) were studied in the awake hamster window chamber model and compared with normoxia. Hyperoxia increased arterial blood Po2 to 477.9 +/- 19.9 from 60.0 +/- 1.2 mmHg (P < 0.05). Heart rate and blood pressure were unaltered, whereas cardiac index was reduced from 196 +/- 1...

BACKGROUND Patients with sickle cell anemia (SCA) frequently present with episodes of chest pain, alterations in the resting electrocardiogram, and changes in cardiac structure and functions. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of recurrent episodes of vaso-occlusion on the coronary microcirculation. METHODS Coronary flow velocity and coronary flow reserve (CFR) of stable patients with SCA (n=...

Every technology yet to be consolidated needs to be compared with reference methods to evaluate its accuracy. Over the past years, contrast echocardiography has been compared against a variety of standards. In experimental studies, myocardial perfusion data from ultrasound have been compared with the measurements of coronary blood flow obtained by labeled microspheres, or with infarct size foll...

AIMS Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) improves hemodynamic parameters, exercise capacity, symptoms, functional status, and prognosis among patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). The role of the vascular endothelium in these improvements is largely unknown. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether the endothelium-dependent reactivity of the peripheral microcirculation improves i...

was given to rats for 2, 3, or 5 days. Heart, lung, liver, spleen, and kidney tissues were studied by light and electron microscopy and with immunoperoxidase techniques. Cardiac changes consisted of focal lymphocytic and eosinophilic infiltration, myocyte vacuolization, myofibrillar loss, and necrosis. Ultrastructural alterations included swelling of endothelial cells, with dissociation of inte...

PURPOSE The aim of our study was to investigate whether dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) allows visualization of changes in microcirculation between healthy controls on the one side and early/advanced stages of plasma cell disease on the other. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We examined a group of 222 individuals consisting of 60 patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undet...

The microcirculation is the anatomical location of perfusion and substrate exchange, and its functional impairment is of paramount importance during the state of shock. The difference in venous-to-arterial carbon dioxide partial pressures (Pv-aCO2) has recently been reported to correlate with microcirculatory dysfunction during early septic shock with greater fidelity than global hemodynamic pa...