OBJECTIVES We investigated the relationship between ultrasonographic features of the carotid artery and the angiographic features of coronary plaques in acute coronary syndrome (ACS). BACKGROUND The carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) may be a marker of advanced coronary artery disease. METHODS Consecutive ACS patients (N = 125) underwent B-mode ultrasonography within one week of the acute...

OBJECTIVES The current study was designed to investigate the relationship between renal arterial structure and vessel remodeling in patients with atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis (RAS), compared with that seen in coronary artery disease (CAD). BACKGROUND The nature and the tissue characterization of atherosclerotic RAS lesions have not been fully explored. METHODS Gray scale and virtua...

Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) has been an important modality in understanding the in vivo pathophysiology of coronary artery disease and in predicting outcome of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The IVUS features associated with acute coronary syndromes include positive remodeling, large plaque burden, ruptured plaque, and intracoronary thrombus. Plaque burden, lesion site calcium, a...

ith great interest I read the report by Weissman et al. (1) regarding ntravascular ultrasound (IVUS) analysis of polymer-based aclitaxel-eluting stents. The investigators stated in the text that positive remodeling assessed as the absolute increase in the xternal elastic membrane volume over time tended to be slightly ore prominent with the TAXUS stent (7.66 48.64 mm vs. 12.29 36.05 mm, respect...

BACKGROUND Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic antigen mediated disease associated with substantial esophageal remodeling and fibrosis. The functional TGFβ1 promoter SNP C-509 associates with renal fibrosis and asthma. The effect of TGFβ1 genotype and EoE severity or potential gene-environment interactions have not been previously reported in EoE. METHODS Genotype at TGFβ1 C-509T and ...

Background—Cardiac resynchronization therapy for heart failure with left bundle branch block reduces left ventricular (LV) conduction delay, contraction asynchrony, and LV end-systolic volume (“reverse remodeling”). Up to one third of patients do not improve, and the electric requirements for reverse remodeling are unclear. We hypothesized that reverse remodeling is predicted by the left bundle...

Background: Many systemic, regional and lesion factors have been identified which may influence arterial remodeling, but little is known about the importance of extravascular resistance to vessel enlargement. As myocardial systolic splinting may significantly affect vessel expansion the effect of plaque orientation on arterial remodeling in eccentric coronary atherosclerotic lesions was examine...

BACKGROUND Cardiac resynchronization therapy for heart failure with left bundle branch block reduces left ventricular (LV) conduction delay, contraction asynchrony, and LV end-systolic volume ("reverse remodeling"). Up to one third of patients do not improve, and the electric requirements for reverse remodeling are unclear. We hypothesized that reverse remodeling is predicted by the left bundle...