[Natriuretic peptides: anything new in cardiology?].

Twenty-five years after the first publication of the strong natriuretic effect of rat cardiac atria extract, natriuretic peptides play an important part in everyday, not only cardiological, practice. In the current review the authors briefly describe the role of natriuretic peptides (ANP, BNP, and CNP) in clinical practice, concentrating on the possibilities of their therapeutic use. They also summarize their role in the mechanisms of endogenous cardioprotection and regulation of LVH, which is the endpoint of many cardiovascular pathologies.

Left internal mammary artery improves 5-year survival in patients under 40 subjected to surgical revascularization.

Background: The population of young patients under 40 requiring coronary bypass surgery is characterized by an extremely and unusually rapid progression of coronary heart disease. The aim of the present study was to assess the clinical status and quality of life in these patients after surgery in relation to the type of conduit used to revascularize the left anterior descending artery (LAD).

Methods: One hundred seventeen patients under 40 (range, 30-40 years) underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) at our institution between 1991 and 1999.

[New face of modified reperfusion: postconditioning].

In this review authors describe the mechanisms and possibilities of attenuation of ischaemia reperfusion injury in the myocardium. They describe modified reperfusion (postconditioning) and discuss its use in basic and clinical research. The proposed effects of modified reperfusion on the reperfusion injury were also depicted and compared to the mechanisms and action of ischemic preconditioning.