Andreas Synetos, Konstantinos Toutouzas, Maria Drakopoulou, Iosif Koutagiar, George Benetos, Rafail Kotronias, Nikolaos Anousakis-Vlachochristou, George Latsios, Antonis Karanasos, George Agrogiannis, Marinos Metaxas, Konstantinos Stathogiannis, Aggelos Papanikolaou, Alexandros Georgakopoulos, Nikoleta Pianou, Eleftherios Tsiamis, Efstratios Patsouris, Apostolos Papalois, Dennis Cokkinos, Constantinos Anagnostopoulos, Dimitrios Tousoulis
The aim of this study was to evaluate in an experimental model of aortic valve (AV) stenosis the effectiveness of zoledronate on the inhibition of calcification. Sixteen New Zealand rabbits were placed on vitamin D-enriched diet for 3 weeks. All animals underwent PET/CT at baseline and before euthanasia to assess calcification. Thereafter, the AVs of eight animals were treated with local delivery of 500 μg/l zoledronate. A placebo mixture was administered in the remaining eight animals. Standardized uptake values were corrected for blood pool activity, providing mean tissue to background ratios (TBRmean)...
March 26, 2018: Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research