Enhanced external counterpulsation improves systolic blood pressure in patients with refractory angina.

Background: Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) is a noninvasive treatment of patients with refractory angina. The immediate hemodynamic effects of EECP are similar to intra-aortic balloon pump counterpulsation, but EECP's effects on standard blood pressure measurements during and after treatment are unknown.

Methods: We evaluated systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) for 108 consecutive patients undergoing EECP.

Cardiovascular cell therapy and endogenous repair.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) exceeds infection and cancer as the leading cause of death. In the USA alone, approximately a million individuals suffer an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) annually. As the prevalence of CVD risk factors (e.

Atherosclerosis as a disease of failed endogenous repair.

As coronary artery disease (CAD) continues to be the primary cause of mortality, a more in-depth understanding of pathophysiology and novel treatments are being sought. The past two decades have established inflammation as a driving force behind CAD--from endothelial dysfunction to heart failure. Recent advances in stem/progenitor cell biology have led to initial applications of progenitor cells in CAD continuum and have revealed that atherosclerosis is, at least in part, a disease of failed endogenous vascular repair.

Sex-based differences in vascular repair with bone marrow cell therapy: relevance of regulatory and Th2-type cytokines.

Objectives: There are differences in symptoms, risk stratification, and efficacy of pharmacological treatments between men and women with coronary artery disease (CAD). The results of clinical studies of cell therapy in CAD patients are mixed. The relevance of sex to response to cell therapy is unknown.

Cell therapy in kidney disease: cautious optimism... but optimism nonetheless.

The recently discovered therapeutic potential of stem or progenitor cells has initiated development of novel treatments in a number of diseases-treatments that could not only improve patients' quality of life, but also halt or even prevent disease progression. Hypertension; fluctuations in glycemia, electrolytes, nutrient levels, and circulating volume; and frequent infections and the associated inflammation all greatly impair the endothelium in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis. As our understanding of the regulatory function of the endothelium advances, focus is increasingly being placed on endothelial repair in acute and chronic renal failure and after renal transplantation.