BACKGROUND In recent years there has been a debate about the functional severity of restenosis of drug-eluting stents. The aim of the present study was to assess the functional severity of stenosis in patients with moderate angiographic restenosis after paclitaxel-eluting stents (PES) deployment. METHODS AND RESULTS Forty-two patients with moderate angiographic restenosis at the in-stent segm...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Inflammation is a recognized risk factor for the vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque. The study explores the relationship between the degree of Magnetic Resonance (MR)-defined inflammation using Ultra Small Super-Paramagnetic Iron Oxide (USPIO) particles and the severity of luminal stenosis in asymptomatic carotid plaques. METHODS Seventy-one patients with an asymptomatic...

conclusion we conclude that coronary calcium scoring provided useful information in the management of patients. in cacs less than 100, it has a npv of 87% in excluding significant stenosis in patients with the risk of cad but it does not have enough diagnostic accuracy for surely excluding coronary stenosis, so we should perform a combination of cacs and coronary ct angiography for patients. re...

THREE FUNDAMENTAL ADVANCES in our knowledge underlie the rapidly evolving long-term treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD), summarized briefly here for perspective on the paper by Marques and colleagues (17) in this issue of American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, on quantifying severity of coronary artery stenoses by their pressure-flow velocity relation. The first...

BACKGROUND Whether minimal microvascular resistance of the myocardium is affected by the presence of an epicardial stenosis is controversial. Recently, an index of microcirculatory resistance (IMR) was developed that is based on combined measurements of distal coronary pressure and thermodilution-derived mean transit time. In normal coronary arteries, IMR correlates well with true microvascular...

OBJECTIVE Fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) is a circulating regulator of phosphate and vitamin D metabolism and is associated with coronary artery calcification, and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to determine whether circulating FGF23 concentration is independently associated with the severity and extent of coronary artery diseas...

The height of the "a" wave of the apexcardiogram was evaluated as a marker for critical aortic stenosis in patients over 40. Critical aortic stenosis was defined as an aortic valve area < .75 cm2 with no more than mild aortic insufficiency. Phonocardiograms and apexcardiograms were performed on 72 patients with catheterization proven aortic stenosis and on 14 normal controls, all over age 40. T...

OBJECTIVES This study was designed to assess the prevalence and clinical significance of exaggerated nonculprit lesion stenosis in the setting of acute (<12 h) myocardial infarction (AMI). BACKGROUND Although microvascular spasm may reduce nonculprit artery flow during AMI, it is unknown whether increased tone may exaggerate nonculprit lesion severity. METHODS In patients with additional an...

OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence and prognosis of congenital aortic valve stenosis in the five Health Districts of Liverpool that make up the Merseyside area. DESIGN The records of the Liverpool Congenital Malformations Registry and the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital identified 239 patients (155 male, 84 female) born with aortic valve stenosis between 1960 and 1990. Patients were tra...