BACKGROUND Passive smoking is associated with early arterial damage in adults, but its effect on endothelial function in children is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS Serum cotinine concentration was measured annually in children between 8 and 11 years of age who had participated since infancy in a randomized, prospective atherosclerosis prevention trial (Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Interve...

The endothelial function declines with age, and dyslipidemia (DL) has been shown to hasten this process by favoring the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) can be induced by ROS, but its contribution to the regulation of the endothelial function is unknown. Since COX-2 inhibitors may be deleterious to the cardiovascular system, we hypothesized that DL leads to ...

Objective To investigate the mechanism of ventricular dilation-induced arrhythmias by dilating isolated rat hearts. Methods Isolated rat hearts were perfused by Langerdorff method. After equilibration, 80 hearts were randomly divided into four groups as follows: (1) control group (n=20), (2) Ca2+ preconditioning (CPC) group (n=20), (3) streptomycin group (n=20), and (4) CPC + streptomycin group...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary valve replacement (PVR) in repaired tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) reduces pulmonary regurgitation and decreases right ventricular (RV) dilation, but its long-term impact on ventricular tachycardia (VT) and mortality is unknown. This study aimed to determine the incidence of death and VT in TOF after PVR and to test the hypothesis that PVR leads to improvement in these outcomes....

Cardiovascular dysfunction is characteristic of both hypo- and hyperthyroidism. Endothelium-dependent dilation of conductance vessels is impaired in hypothyroidism but augmented in hyperthyroidism. We hypothesized that these alterations in dilation extend into the resistance vasculature of skeletal muscle. To test this hypothesis, rats were made hypothyroid with propylthiouracil (Hypo; n = 13) ...

  Transient ischemic left ventricular dilation (TID) is a marker of severe and extensive coronary artery disease as well as an increased risk of adverse outcomes. The patients with more severe and extensive ischemia, multivessel-type of perfusion abnormality as well as patients with left anterior descending artery (LAD) territory perfusion abnormality have more probab...

BACKGROUND/AIMS We compared the long-term outcomes of balloon dilation versus botulinum toxin injection in Korean patients with primary achalasia and identified factors predicting remission. METHODS We included 73 patients with achalasia newly diagnosed between January 1988 and January 2011. We ultimately enrolled 37 of 55 patients with primary achalasia through telephone interviews, who were...

BACKGROUND Vascular endothelium, a provider of nitric oxide, is essential for the maintenance of homeostasis in healthy vascular systems. Increased oxidative stress promotes vascular inflammation and is a common pathway involved in endothelial damage. The present study sought to investigate the usefulness of derivative reactive oxygen metabolites (d-ROM) as an oxidative stress marker for detect...

We hypothesized that during hypertension, the impairment of mediation of shear stress-induced dilation by nitric oxide (NO) is due to the prevailing hemodynamic forces, and that mediation of this response by NO should still be present in young spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Thus, responses to increases in perfusate flow eliciting increases in wall shear stress were investigated in press...

Objective. Diabetic nephropathy is the most commonly seen cause of chronic renal failure, and oxidative stress is important in etiology. In the present study, favorable effects (if any) of the treatment with a thiazolidinedione group drug, pioglitazone, on antioxidant enzyme levels in the renal tissue, renal histopathology, and inflammatory cytokine levels have been investigated. Method. Forty ...