The BALANCE Study: clinical benefit and long-term outcome after intracoronary autologous bone marrow cell transplantation in patients with acute myocardial infarction.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the quantitative amount of improvement of ventricular hemodynamic status, geometry, and contractility as well as the long-term clinical outcome of cell-treated patients after acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Background: Animal experiments as well as clinical studies have demonstrated that autologous bone marrow cell (BMC) transplantation might improve ventricular function and prevent remodeling.

Methods: Sixty-two patients underwent intracoronary autologous BMC transplantation 7 +/- 2 days after AMI.

Intracoronary autologous bone marrow cell transplantation beneficially modulates heart rate variability.

The effect of intracoronary administration of autologous bone marrow cells on autonomic modulation of heart rate has not yet been demonstrated. Therefore, we investigated different parameters of heart rate variability (HRV) in 46 patients without (n=23) or with (n=23) intracoronary stem cell therapy after transmural myocardial infarction. After three to twelve months of follow up, patients receiving stem cells showed a significant increase of HRV parameters that have been linked to cardiovascular prognosis.

[Cardiac alterations caused by renal failure].

Cardiac disease is the most common cause of death in patients with endstage renal disease. It was assumed that the high rate of cardiovascular mortality was based on accelerated atherosclerosis. Recently published articles, however, demonstrated that only 30-50% of all cardiac deaths in patients with uremia was due to myocardial infarction.

[Coronary artery disease: what's different in women?].

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of mortality for women and men in developed countries. Although coronary artery disease is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in women, coronary heart disease in women is still clinically underestimated. Although the incidence of coronary heart disease increases with age in women, the clinical presentation of the disease lags 10 years behind that in men.

Disturbed endothelial function of the internal thoracic artery in patients with coronary artery disease.

Objectives And Background: The internal thoracic artery is an established arterial graft for myocardial revascularization. It never had been investigated, whether there are functional differences in this vessel between patients with or without coronary artery disease.

Methods: We investigated the left internal thoracic artery of 28 patients (15 with and 13 without coronary artery disease) with a duplex-system at rest and with a handgrip exercise.

[Hypertensive microvascular disease].

Arterial hypertension is a major cardiovascular risk factor and leads to vascular as well as to myocardial manifestations. Particularly hypertensive microvascular disease is of great importance. Major clinical manifestations of hypertensive heart disease are symptoms of coronary insufficiency with typical angina pectoris, but also heart failure (systolic or diastolic dysfunction) and arrhythmia.

Angioplasty of the internal thoracic artery bypass-graft an alternative to reoperation.

Background: This review presents an overview of interventional revascularization procedures of the internal thoracic artery after prior implantation as a coronary-artery bypass graft.

Methods: Our search was concentrated on the MEDLINE-database to identify all articles on internal thoracic artery-graft-angioplasties and reoperation after internal thoracic artery bypass grafting published between 1968 and 2000.

Results: Surgical revascularization and reoperation were reported in five papers including a total of 785 patients.

[The current status of noninvasive cardiac diagnosis in women with suspected coronary heart disease].

Background And Objective: Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of mortality among women in the industrial countries. Unfortunately, the routinely available noninvasive tests used to screen the presence of coronary artery disease have been relatively insensitive and nonspecific for women. The aim of this study was to evaluate the importance of pretest coronary artery disease probability and to determine whether the evaluation of left ventricular diastolic parameters is a relevant diagnostic tool in women with suspected coronary artery disease.