Plasma Oxylipins: A Potential Risk Assessment Tool in Atherosclerotic Coronary Artery Disease.

While oxylipins have been linked to coronary artery disease (CAD), little is known about their diagnostic and prognostic potential. We tested whether plasma concentration of specific oxylipins may discriminate among number of diseased coronary arteries and predict median 5-year outcomes in symptomatic adults. Using a combination of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and quantitative tandem mass spectrometry, we conducted a targeted analysis of 39 oxylipins in plasma samples of 23 asymptomatic adults with low CAD risk and 74 symptomatic adults (≥70% stenosis), aged 38-87 from the Greater Portland, Oregon area.

Coronary autoregulation is abnormal in syndrome X: insights using myocardial contrast echocardiography.

Background: Syndrome X in women is thought to be caused by coronary microvascular dysfunction, the exact site of which is unknown. The aim of this study was to characterize the microvascular site of dysfunction in these patients using myocardial contrast echocardiography.

Methods: Women with exertional angina, positive test results on stress imaging, but no coronary artery disease (the study group, n = 18) and age-matched control women also with no coronary artery disease (n = 17) were enrolled.

Prognostic value of dipyridamole stress myocardial contrast echocardiography: comparison with single photon emission computed tomography.

Background: Dipyridamole stress myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) can be used to detect coronary artery disease (CAD). Because it measures myocardial blood flow velocity in addition to measuring myocardial blood volume, it was hypothesized that it should have greater prognostic utility than single photon-emission computed tomography (SPECT), which measures only myocardial blood volume. Because blood flow mismatch precedes wall thickening (WT) abnormalities during demand ischemia, it was also postulated that perfusion on MCE would be superior to WT abnormalities on echocardiography for this purpose.

Cost-efficiency of myocardial contrast echocardiography in patients presenting to the emergency department with chest pain of suspected cardiac origin and a nondiagnostic electrocardiogram.

Assessment of patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with suspected cardiac chest pain and a nondiagnostic electrocardiogram (ECG) is lengthy and costly. It was hypothesized that myocardial contrast echocardiography (MCE) can be cost-efficient in such patients by detecting those with chest pain that is noncardiac in nature. Accordingly, cost-efficiency was evaluated in 957 patients presenting to the ED with suspected cardiac chest pain, but no ST-segment elevation on the ECG, who underwent MCE.