cardio

Myocardial infarction (MI) denotes the death of cardiac myocytes due to extended ischemia. Myocardial reperfusion is the restoration of coronary blood flow after a period of coronary occlusion. Reperfusion has the potential to salvage ischemic myocardium but paradoxically can cause injury, a phenomenon called as 'reperfusion injury' (IR). Standard histologic, immunohistochemical and Elisa techniques were used to study the histopathologic, oxidative, apoptotic and inflammatory changes in MI and IR. The IL-6 levels in the LV of the MI group were significantly raised as compared to the IR group (P=0...

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is an effective treatment for severe symptomatic aortic stenosis (AS) in patients who are inoperable or at high risk for surgery. However, the intermediate- to long-term mortality is high, emphasizing the importance of patient selection. We, therefore, sought to evaluate the prognostic value of frailty in older recipients of TAVR, hypothesizing that frail patients would experience a higher mortality rate and a higher likelihood of poor outcome 1 year after TAVR...

DESCRIPTION: The American College of Physicians (ACP) developed this guideline to present the evidence and provide clinical recommendations on the treatment of anemia and iron deficiency in adult patients with heart disease. METHODS: This guideline is based on published literature in the English language on anemia and iron deficiency from 1947 to July 2012 that was identified using MEDLINE and the Cochrane Library. Literature was reassessed in April 2013, and additional studies were included...

BACKGROUND: Muscle sympathetic activation in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) has been attributed, on the basis of multiunit recordings, to attenuated inhibitory feedback from stretch-sensitive cardiopulmonary mechanoreceptors. However, such preparations integrate 2 populations of single units exhibiting directionally opposite firing when atrial pressure is perturbed. We tested the hypothesis that the proportion of single units firing paradoxically when filling pressure increases is augmented in HFrEF...

Valvular aortic stenosis is the second most prevalent adult valve disease in the United States and causes progressive pressure overload, invariably leading to life-threatening complications. Surgical aortic valve replacement and, more recently, transcatheter aortic valve replacement effectively relieve the hemodynamic burden and improve the symptoms and survival of affected individuals. However, according to current American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines on the management of valvular heart disease, the indications for aortic valve replacement, including transcatheter aortic valve replacement, are based primarily on the development of clinical symptoms, because their presence indicates a dismal prognosis...

BACKGROUND: Hyperglycemia in patients with acute coronary syndromes is associated with poor outcomes, and its rapid correction with insulin infusion has been shown to restore platelet responsiveness to nitric oxide and to suppress superoxide (O2(-)) generation. Thioredoxin-interacting protein has emerged recently as a pivotal modulator of hyperglycemia-induced inflammation, O2(-) production, and impairment of nitric oxide signaling, but it is not known whether its expression in platelets can be downregulated rapidly...

BACKGROUND: Stress-induced cardiomyopathy (SIC) has gained increasing attention worldwide and is characterized by extensive ventricular akinesis, Beta-blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) are the main treatments for SIC patients. The pharmacological mechanism of action of beta-blockers results in the inhibition of the biological effects of catecholamines. However, the mechanism of action of ACEIs in the treatment of cardiomyopathy is not known. Our aim is to assess changes in levels of angiotensin II, angiotensin-II receptors and ACE responses to SIC...

Millions of people are exposed daily to N-nitrosamines from different environmental sources. The present study aims at investigating the role of N-nitrosamines in the alteration of homocysteine, lipid profile, oxidative stress, paraoxonase activity, antioxidant enzymes, and free radicals which are important risk factors for CVD. In addition, biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases such as creatine kinase MB activity (CK-MB) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) as well as protein expression of both glutathione peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase π isozyme were assayed after treatment of rats with 0...

In recent years, diabetes and its associated complications have become a major public health concern. The cardiovascular risk increases significantly in diabetes patients. It is a complex disease characterized by multiple metabolic derangements and is known to impair cardiac function by disrupting the balance between pro-oxidants and antioxidants at the cellular level. The subsequent generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and accompanying oxidative stress are hallmarks of the molecular mechanisms responsible for cardiovascular disease...

INTRODUCTION: Recent evidence shows that pro-inflammatory cytokines may be important in the assessment of severity and prognosis in congestive heart failure (CHF). In the present study, we examine the association of cytokines with causes, grade and prognosis of CHF patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Of 127 patients with CHF, 11 were excluded and the remaining 116 patients with different aetiologies of CHF, and 250 age- and sex-matched control subjects, were evaluated in this case study...

The heart is highly sensitive to the aging process. In the elderly, the heart tends to become hypertrophic and fibrotic. Stiffness increases with ensuing systolic and diastolic dysfunction. Aging also affects the cardiac response to stress. At the molecular level, the aging process is associated with accumulation of damaged proteins and organelles, partially due to defects in protein quality control systems. The accumulation of dysfunctional and abnormal mitochondria is an important pathophysiological feature of the aging process, which is associated with excessive production of reactive oxygen species...

Our aim was to examine some parameters of oxidative status, gelatinases, and their inhibitors and to evaluate their interrelationships in subjects with metabolic syndrome (MS). We enrolled 65 MS subjects, subdivided according to the presence or not of diabetes mellitus. We examined lipid peroxidation (expressed as thiobarbituric acid reacting substances, TBARS), protein oxidation (expressed as carbonyl groups), nitric oxide metabolites (NO x ), total antioxidant status (TAS), MMP-2, MMP-9, TIMP-1, and TIMP-2...

Cardiac overexpression of locally acting muscle-restricted (m)IGF-1 and the consequent downstream activation of NAD(+)-dependent protein deacetylase sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) trigger potent cardiac antioxidative and antihypertrophic effects. Transient receptor potential (TRP) cation channel A1 (TRPA1) belongs to the TRP ion channel family of molecular detectors of thermal and chemical stimuli that activate sensory neurons to produce pain. Recently, it has been shown that TRPA1 activity influences blood pressure, but the significance of TRPA1 in the cardiovascular system remains elusive...

The management of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HF-REF) has improved significantly over the last two decades. In contrast, little or no progress has been made in identifying evidence-based, effective treatments for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HF-PEF). Despite the high prevalence, mortality, and cost of HF-PEF, large phase III international clinical trials investigating interventions to improve outcomes in HF-PEF have yielded disappointing results. Therefore, treatment of HF-PEF remains largely empiric, and almost no acknowledged standards exist...

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No abstract text is available yet for this article.

BACKGROUND: The role of oxidative stress and systemic inflammation on the association between personal exposures to ambient fine particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5) and cardiac autonomic dysfunction, indicated by reduction in heart rate variability (HRV), has not been examined. METHODS: We performed a repeated measures study on community adults in a densely populated inner city neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. Continuous ambulatory electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring and personal exposure to PM2...

Hearts of diabetic individuals are susceptible to ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. The RNA-binding protein Quaking (QKI) is known to link intracellular signaling to cellular survival and QKI dysregulation may contribute to human diseases. However, the function of QKI in diabetic hearts remains unknown. The current study attempted to identify new molecular mechanisms that potentially contribute to the susceptibility to ischemic injury in diabetic myocardium. Diabetic ob/ob mice or wild-type C57BL/6J mice were subjected to in vivo myocardial I/R...

Oxidative stress is a causal factor and key promoter of a variety of cardiovascular diseases associated with apoptotic cell death by causing deregulation of related genes. Though carvedilol, a β-adrenergic blocker, has been shown to produce cytoprotective effects against cardiomyocyte apoptosis, the mechanisms are not fully understood. The present study was designed to investigate whether the beneficial effects of carvedilol are related to microRNAs which have emerged as critical players in cardiovascular pathophysiology via post-transcriptional regulation of protein-coding genes...

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated that biological aging has a negative influence on the therapeutic effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-based therapy. Using a rat myocardial infarction (MI) model, we tested the hypothesis that silent mating type information regulation 2 homolog 1 (SIRT1) may ameliorate the phenotype and improve the function of aged MSCs and thus enhance the efficacy of aged MSCs-based therapy. METHODS: Sixty female rats underwent left anterior descending coronary artery ligation and were randomly assigned to receiving: intramyocardial injection of cell culture medium (DMEM group); SIRT1 overexpression vector-treated aged MSCs (SIRT1-aged MSCs group) obtained from aged male SD rats or empty vector-treated aged MSCs (vector-aged MSCs group)...