Prevalent platelet dysfunction in patients with aortic valve disease.

Background And Aim Of The Study: In patients with heart valve disease, the valve leaflets display a gapped, rough endothelial lining often covered with calcified areas. As a consequence, blood flow is disturbed and a stimulation of components of the hemostasis system is assumed. The possible mechanisms of this process are, however, unclear at present.

Cardiac efficiency and oxygen consumption measured with 11C-acetate PET after long-term cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Unlabelled: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is a treatment option in patients with severe heart failure and left bundle-branch block (LBBB). This study evaluated the effects of 4 and 13 mo of CRT on myocardial oxygen consumption (MVO2) and cardiac efficiency as compared with mild heart failure patients without LBBB.

Methods: Sixteen patients with severe heart failure and LBBB due to idiopathic cardiomyopathy were studied at baseline and after 4 and after 13 mo of therapy.

Beneficial effects of atorvastatin on myocardial regions with initially low vasodilatory capacity at various stages of coronary artery disease.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to analyse non-invasively the regional effect of therapy with an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor on myocardial blood flow in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) with special reference to segments with initially substantially impaired vasodilation.

Methods: The study included 26 patients with untreated hypercholesterolaemia. Coronary angiography revealed CAD in nine patients with stenosis >50% and wall irregularities or minimal stenosis <30% in 17 patients.

Global and regional myocardial oxygen consumption and blood flow in severe cardiomyopathy with left bundle branch block.

Objective: In patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), left bundle branch block (LBBB) is a common finding. The characteristic feature is an asynchronous septal wall motion and most frequently a delay of the lateral and/or posterior wall segments. With the onset of cardiac resynchronization therapy, there is a focus on the specific pathophysiology of a LBBB.

Effect of cardiac resynchronization therapy on global and regional oxygen consumption and myocardial blood flow in patients with non-ischaemic and ischaemic cardiomyopathy.

Aims: We studied the effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) on global and regional myocardial oxygen consumption (MVO2) and myocardial blood flow (MBF) in non-ischaemic (NICM) and ischaemic dilated cardiomyopathy (ICM).

Methods And Results: Thirty-one NICM and 11 ICM patients, all of them acute responders, were investigated. MVO2 and MBF were obtained by 11C-acetate PET before and after 4 months of CRT.

[123I]-phenylpentadecanoic acid uptake in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.

Background: The rate constant for global fatty acid influx (k(1)) was studied in 12 male patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).

Method: 10 normal subjects served as controls. 201-Thallium (201TI) and [123I]-phenyl-pentadecanoic acid (IPPA) were administered during bicycle exercise under fasting conditions.