Publications by authors named "Hans Reinhard Zerkowski"

Background: 3% to 4% of the population suffers from chronic coronary artery disease (CAD). Primary care physicians, internists, cardiologists, and cardiac surgeons are involved in their long-term care. This article presents a complementary care pathway that integrates two apparently competing treatment options, aortocoronary bypass surgery (ACB) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

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Whether or not there are molecular differences, at the intra- and extracellular level, between aortic dilatation in patients with bicuspid (BAV) and those with a tricuspid aortic valve (TAV) has remained controversial for years. We have performed 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry coupled with dephosphorylation and phosphostaining experiments to reveal and define protein alterations and the high abundant structural phosphoproteins in BAV compared to TAV aortic aneurysm samples. 2-D gel patterns showed a high correlation in protein expression between BAV and TAV specimens (n=10).

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Most of the biologically relevant data on cardiomyocytes are derived from isolated cells under conditions that are, to some extent, altered compared to the natural milieu of the functional heart. The handling procedure of the dissection, isolation, and short-term culturing induces changes in the cells such that the subsequently measured parameters (among others, the protein synthesis) reflect the actual experimental conduct rather than the intrinsic properties of these terminally differentiated cells. Although it is known that the protein synthetic machinery of isolated cardiomyocytes is operational and functional, the biosynthetic yield of human cardiomyocytes in the natural milieu of the trabeculae remains to be established, with a special emphasis to clarify whether the protein synthesis includes just a limited set of polypeptides or it encompasses all cellular constituents.

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Bicuspid aortic valve is often associated with lesions of the ascending aorta, which differ histologically from those in tricuspid valve patients. We undertook proteomic analyses to assess differences at the proteome level. Aortic samples were collected from 20 patients undergoing aortic valve and/or ascending aortic replacement; 9 had a bicuspid valve: 5 with aortic aneurysm (diameter > 50 mm) and 4 without dilation; 11 had a tricuspid valve: 6 with aortic aneurysm and 5 without dilation.

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Background And Aim Of The Study: The clinical performance of mechanical heart valves and valve-related complications are important safety endpoints in patients after heart valve replacement. In this retrospective analysis, the mid- to long-term clinical outcomes of two similar bileaflet heart valves, routinely implanted at the authors' institution over an 11-year period, were compared.

Methods: Between January 1993 and December 2003, a total of 1,161 patients (758 males, 403 females) received either a St.

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The patency rate of radial artery (RA) conduits is considerably lower than that of internal thoracic artery (ITA) grafts and the evidence suggests that this is due to a clinically suspected higher incidence of vasospasm. The aim of this study was, therefore, to compare intraindividually the pharmacological reactivity of RA with that of ITA. Both RA and ITA were taken from the same patients and investigated in parallel.

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Non small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) express cancer/testis antigens (CTA) genes and MAGE-A expression correlates with poor prognosis in squamous cell carcinomas. We addressed cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) responses to HLA class I restricted CTA epitopes in TIL from NSCLC in an unselected group of 33 patients consecutively undergoing surgery. Expression of MAGE-A1, -A2, -A3, -A4, -A10, -A12 and NY-ESO-1 CTA genes was tested by quantitative RT-PCR.

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Objectives: : The intravascular application of near-infrared spectroscopy was previously evaluated in acute ischemia-reperfusion studies in animal experiments. The objective of our study was to assess the technical feasibility and clinical reliability of an online myocardial ischemia monitoring by using intravascular near-infrared spectroscopy during off-pump coronary bypass surgery.

Methods: : Intravascular near-infrared spectroscopy of coronary sinus blood was performed in 10 elective patients selected for off-pump coronary bypass surgery.

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Background: The ATS Open Pivot Heart Valve was first introduced in 1992 and has been implanted routinely at our institution since 1993. Valve selection was based on surgeon preference. The objective of this study is to retrospectively analyze our 11-year clinical results with ATS prostheses.

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Objectives: Right ventricular dysfunction is a possible cause of cardiac failure after coronary surgery. The use of cardiopulmonary bypass is regarded as a major cause for its occurrence, and it has been postulated that performing coronary surgery without cardiopulmonary bypass might reduce ventricular dysfunction. Therefore, this prospective, randomized, controlled study tested the hypothesis that off-pump coronary surgery would better preserve right ventricular systolic and diastolic function than conventional bypass surgery.

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Background: In off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery, manipulations on the beating heart can lead to transient interruptions of myocardial oxygen supply, which can generate an accumulation of oxygen-dependent metabolites in coronary venous blood. The objective of this study was to evaluate the reliability of intravascular near-infrared spectroscopy as a monitoring method to detect possible ischemic events in off-pump coronary artery bypass procedures.

Methods: In 15 elective patients undergoing off-pump myocardial revascularization, intravascular near-infrared spectroscopic analysis of coronary venous blood was performed.

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Coronary artery bypass grafting was performed in a 58-year-old patient 3 years after right pneumonectomy for nonsmall cell lung cancer stage IIIa. The CT scan demonstrated a marked shift of the mediastinum into the right chest, but revealed a feasible access to the left coronary artery by median sternotomy. Pulmonary function was impaired.

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Purpose: Cryopreserved human blood vessels may become important tools in bypass surgery. Optimal cryopreservation of an arterial graft should, therefore, preserve both histological and physiological characteristics of smooth muscle and endothelium comparable to the unfrozen artery.

Methods: Rings from human internal mammary arteries (IMA) were investigated in vitro either unfrozen or after immersion into a cryomedium (RPMI 1640 containing 1.

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Background: The aim of the study was to compare the adrenal response, the course of the ACTH/cortisol ratio, as well as the variance and the diagnostic performance of different cutoffs after 1 and 250 microg ACTH stimulation in different stress situations.

Methods: We investigated three groups with increasing stress levels: ambulatory controls (group A; n = 20), hospitalized medical patients (group B; n = 25), and patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (group C; n = 29). All subjects underwent four consecutive ACTH stimulation tests and were randomized to either a 1- or 250-microg dose.

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Objectives: Cytokines contribute to the development of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome or multiple-organ failure frequently observed after cardiopulmonary bypass-supported cardiac surgery. To quantify the contribution of bypass-induced versus trauma-induced inflammatory response after coronary artery bypass grafting, we examined plasma cytokine levels in 120 patients with coronary artery disease who were treated with or without cardiopulmonary bypass-assisted procedures.

Methods: Patients were treated in accordance with one of the following protocols: (1) elective percutaneous coronary intervention without cardiopulmonary bypass (n = 69), (2) cardiopulmonary bypass-supported percutaneous coronary intervention (cardiopulmonary bypass-percutaneous coronary intervention; n = 10), and (3) cardiopulmonary bypass-supported coronary artery bypass grafting (cardiopulmonary bypass-coronary artery bypass grafting; n = 41).

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Study Objectives: To investigate the factors that predict survival after lung resection for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) in patients with neutropenia, in order to assist the selection of patients who are most likely to have a successful outcome.

Design: Retrospective single-center study.

Setting: University hospital hemato-oncologic isolation unit and division of thoracic surgery.

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Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are thought to be important mediators in ischaemia/reperfusion injury following coronary vasospasm. The most ubiquitous action of melatonin is that of a free radical scavenger. Therefore, we investigated the action of melatonin by monitoring changes in the tone on ring preparations from human internal mammary arteries (IMA).

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Aim: To assess treatment effects of optimised medical therapy and PCI or CABG surgery on one-year outcome in patients 75 years old with chronic angina.

Methods And Results: On-treatment analysis of the TIME data: all re-vascularised patients (REVASC n=174: 112 randomised to revascularisation and 62 to drugs with late revascularisation) were compared to all patients on continued drug therapy (MED n=127: 86 randomised to drugs and 41 to revascularisation only). Baseline characteristics of both groups were similar (age 80 +/- 4 years).

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Cardiovascular research of the past decades dealt with classical pathophysiological descriptions, then shifted toward the identification of relevant receptors, and then proceeded to the analysis of signal transduction pathways. Most recently, hand in hand with the achievements of the human genome project, the research has gone down the road toward molecular biological "disease gene(s) mapping". The application of proteome research will attempt to close the gap between genomic (and genetic) analysis and the physiological research.

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