BACKGROUND We have shown previously that norepinephrine (NE) uptake activity is reduced in the failing right ventricle of animals with right heart failure (RHF) produced by tricuspid avulsion and progressive pulmonary constriction. However, it is unknown whether this defect in neuronal NE uptake is related to reduction of noradrenergic nerve terminals or whether these changes also occur in anim...

OBJECTIVES This study evaluated the usefulness of fasting (18)F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) in the diagnosis and management of cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) and compared it with FDG uptake in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). BACKGROUND Cardiac sarcoidosis may clinically present as DCM but is amenable to systemic corticosteroid therapy if disease activity is high. Altho...

Insulin increases glucose uptake through the translocation of GLUT-4 via a pathway mediated by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K). In contrast, myocardial glucose uptake during ischemia and hypoxia is stimulated by the translocation of GLUT-4 to the surface of cardiac myocytes through a PI3K-independent pathway that has not been characterized. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) activity is a...

In idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), a generalized Lewy body type-degeneration in the brain as well as extracranial organs was identified. It is unclear, whether cerebral and extracranial Lewy body type-degeneration in PD are coupled or not. To address this question, cerebral [(123)I]FP-CIT SPECT - to quantify cerebral nigrostriatal dopaminergic degeneration - and myocardial [(123)I]MIBG sci...

Treatment with captopril has proved effective in some patients with resistant heart failure. Since cardiac output responses to captopril treatment are generally small, we infused the positive inotropic agent dobutamine in six patients already receiving captopril to determine whether cardiac output could be augmented without concomitantly increasing myocardial oxygen demands. At low infusion rat...

We report a case of a young Indian male who had an incidental abnormal focal uptake of 99mTechnetium-MIBI (Methoxy Isobutyl Isonitrile) in the right lobe of thyroid while undergoing 99mTc-MIBI myocardial perfusion gated SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) imaging as a part of his myocardial ischemia status evaluation. This focal uptake was eventually detected to be a malignant th...

BACKGROUND Acute myocardial ischemia is accompanied by an increase in glucose uptake and metabolism, which appears to be important in protecting myocardial cells from irreversible ischemic injury. Because insulin augments myocardial glucose uptake by inducing the translocation of glucose transporters from an intracellular compartment to the plasma membrane, we hypothesized that acute ischemia w...

BACKGROUND Low-dose dobutamine stress echocardiography is specific for predicting reversible contractility dysfunction, but its sensitivity is lower than ideal. OBJECTIVE We sought to explore the predictors of myocardial contractile recovery following revascularization, in patients with no viability by low-dose dobutamine stress echocardiography. METHODS We prospectively enrolled 30 consecu...

Impaired cardiac systolic and diastolic function has been observed in preclinical models and in subjects with type 2 diabetes. Using a recently validated positron emission tomography (PET) imaging method with 14(R,S)-[(¹⁸F]-fluoro-6-thia-heptadecanoic acid to quantify organ-specific dietary fatty acid partitioning, we demonstrate in this study that overweight and obese subjects with impaired gl...