PURPOSE Adenosine plays an important role in the pathogenesis of homocysteine-associated vascular complications. METHODS This study examined the effects of dipyridamole, an inhibitor for nucleoside transport, on impaired angiogenic processes caused by homocysteine and adenosine in human cardiovascular endothelial cell line (EAhy926). RESULTS The results showed that dipyridamole restored the...

The addition of dipyridamole, an antiplatelet agent, to conventional anticoagulant regimens has been shown to reduce the frequency of embolization after valve replacement with a mechanical prosthesis. The purpose of this meta-analysis was to reevaluate the benefit of dipyridamole by analyzing the evidence from all randomized clinical trials. Summary data were extracted from the application to t...

After a 4-minute i.v. dipyridamole infusion, 0.14 mg/kg/min, serial thallium-201 scans were obtained in 60 patients undergoing cardiac catheterization. Forty patients had significant (greater than or equal to 50% stenosis) coronary artery disease (CAD), and 20 patients had normal coronary arteries or trivial lesions. The images were graded qualitatively for thallium activity by three observers....

BACKGROUND Despite advances in medical therapy, cardiovascular disease, mainly coronary artery disease (CAD), remains the leading cause of mortality among patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). The objective of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of dipyridamole stress echocardiography in identify diabetic patients at high risk for cardiovascular events. METHODS Dipyridamole stre...

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Dipyridamole stress echocardiography (DSE) is an important tool for detecting reversible ischemia in patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD); nonetheless, the results test are related to wall motion abnormalities, moderately operator-dependent, and left anterior descending (LAD) reserve, resulting a modera...

BACKGROUND In patients with ischemic heart disease, high thoracic epidural analgesia (TEA) has been proposed to improve abnormalities of coronary function by inhibiting cardiac sympathetic tone. We evaluated the effect of TEA on myocardial blood flow in patients with ischemic heart disease. METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty male patients with multivessel ischemic heart disease were studied. An epidu...

Previous experiments showed that exposure of sympathetic ganglia to exogenous adenosine increased acetylcholine (ACh) content and its subsequent release. This effect was not mediated through extracellular adenosine receptors, but at an intracellular site following its uptake through nitrobenzylthioinosine (NBTI)-resistant nucleoside transporters. We postulated that endogenous adenosine may play...

AIMS The mechanism by which enhanced external counterpulsation therapy exerts its beneficial effects on chronic and symptomatic stable angina is largely unknown. To clarify the mechanism of action of enhanced external counterpulsation, we used(13)N-ammonia positron emission tomography to evaluate myocardial perfusion. METHODS AND RESULTS This was not a randomized controlled study. Eleven pati...

OBJECTIVES The purposes of this study were to examine the effects of dipyridamole infusion on hemodynamic variables and to compare these changes with myocardial perfusion. BACKGROUND Dipyridamole stress testing with myocardial perfusion imaging is widely used in the assessment of patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). Few studies, however, have correlated the hemodyna...

Background and Purpose—Trial data suggest that dipyridamole, with or without aspirin, is more efficacious in the secondary prevention of stroke than of coronary events. This selective effect might be attributed to blood pressure lowering by dipyridamole. Therefore, we aimed to assess the effect on blood pressure in the setting of a randomized clinical trial in patients with cerebral ischemia of...