Cardiomyophathy

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Background and Objectives : Takotsubo Syndrome (TS) constitutes one of the most recent clinical realities in modern cardiology. It is clinically similar to the acute coronary syndrome, in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease. Case Presentation : We described a case of a female patient affected by TS and left ventricular apical thrombus. Several studies described the cardiological syndrome, overlooking the neuropsychological and psychological outcomes. We aimed to assess the advantages of an integrated, multidisciplinary and multifunctional rehabilitation...

BACKGROUND: CDK9 is the catalytic subunit of the Positive Transcription Elongation Factor b (P-TEFb), which phosphorylates the CTD of RNAPII and negative elongation factors enabling for productive elongation after initiation. CDK9 associates with T-type cyclins and cyclin K and its activity is tightly regulated in cells at different levels. CDK9 is also the catalytic subunit of TAK (Tat activating Kinase), essential for HIV1 replication. Because of CDK9's potential as a therapeutic target in AIDS, cancer, inflammation, and cardiomyophathy it is important to understand the consequences of CDK9 inhibition...

Atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) is a hormone secreted predominantly from atrial myocardium in response to changes in wall tension. Chagas' disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosom cruzi (T. cruzi), the heart being one of the most affected organs, resulting in myocarditis and chronic cardiomyopathy. The inflammatory response of the myocardium may be the result of factors such as ischemia, direct parasite invasion, and autoimmune mechanisms. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge about ANF in Chagas' disease and describe our findings in studying: (1) the development of chagasic cardiomyophathy in T...

Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) has been defined as a disease of the cardiac sarcomere, although sarcomeric protein mutations are not found in one third of cases. We have recently shown that HCM associated with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW) and conduction disease can be caused by mutations in PRKAG2, which encodes the gamma2 subunit of AMPK, an enzyme central to cellular energy homeostasis. AMPK is a heterotrimer composed of one catalytic subunit (alpha) and two regulatory subunits (beta and gamma)...

Impaired cardiovascular function, which may reduce life expectancy, has recently been demonstrated both in GH deficiency and excess. Moreover, experimental and clinical studies support the evidence implicating GH and/or IGF-I in the regulation of heart development. The existence of a specific acromegalic cardiomyophathy characterized by myocardial hypertrophy with interstitial fibrosis, lympho-mononuclear infiltration and areas of monocyte necrosis which often result in biventricular concentric hypertrophy has been recenty demonstrated...

beta 1 and beta 2 adrenoceptor ligand activity has been shown to be down-regulated in failing myocardium. It is the aim of this study to test the hypothesis that also mRNA levels are down-regulated in dilated cardiomyopathy. beta 1 and beta 2 adrenoceptor ligand activities and mRNA expressions were analyzed in left ventricular biopsies from six organ donor hearts, in papillary muscles from seven patients operated on for mitral regurgitation, and in six explanted hearts as the result of dilated cardiomyophathy...

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Left ventricular (LV) diastolic pressure (P), volume (V), and rate of change of volume (dV/dt) were determined at 16.7 msec intervals in 17 patients (simultaneous micromanometer and single plane volume angiography). Four patients had mitral stenosis with atrial fibrillation and 13 patients (three normal, two congestive cardiomyophathy, three LV hypertrophy, and five coronary artery disease) were in normal sinus rhythm. Maximum early diastolic filling rates (max dV/dt) in the normal and cardiomyopathy patients were similar and ranged from 269 to 370 cc/m-2/sec; in coronary artery disease and LV hypertrophy, max dV/dt ranged from 197 to 290 cc/m-2/sec and 213 to 255 cc/m-2/sec respectively; in mitral stenosis, max dV/dt ranged from 215 to 270 cc/m-2 sec...