Definition of contrast enhancement phases of the liver using a perfluoro-based microbubble agent, perflubutane microbubbles.

To define the contrast enhancement phases in the liver with perflubutane microbubbles, the liver enhancement time-intensity curves were investigated in 14 healthy volunteers. The agent was injected intravenously as a bolus and the liver was imaged with an ultrasound scanner as long as 4h after the injection. Time-intensity curves from the hepatic artery, the intrahepatic portal vein, the hepatic vein and the parenchyma of the liver were obtained from the liver ultrasound images.

Role of activated renin-angiotensin system in myocardial fibrosis and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in diabetic patients--reversal by chronic angiotensin II type 1A receptor blockade.

Background: We attempted to test the hypothesis that chronic angiotensin II type 1A receptor blockade (ARB) alters myocardial collagen turnover leading to an improvement of diastolic dysfunction in diabetic patients.

Methods And Results: Forty-eight type 2 diabetic patients were divided into 2 groups: 38 treated with candesartan for 6 months, and 10 without candesartan, as controls. Doppler mitral flow velocity pattern and biomarkers of collagen type I turnover were assessed before and after ARB during a 6-month period.

Tissue characterization identifies subjects with high risk of cardiovascular diseases.

Objective: This study was conducted to examine whether tissue characterization of the carotid artery wall by determining integrated backscatter (IBS) can identify subjects with a recent history of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or atherothrombotic infarction (ATI).

Research Design And Methods: The maximum thickness (Max-IMT) and IBS value (corrected-IBS) of the carotid artery intima-media complex were measured ultrasonographically for 132 type 2 diabetic subjects (62.9+/-8.

Ultrasonic tissue characterization of the atherosclerotic carotid artery: histological correlates or carotid integrated backscatter.

Histological abnormalities of the atherosclerotic lesion are closely related to the stability of the plaque. Specifically, the plaque is likely to be unstable if the fibrous cap is thin. However, ultrasonic characterization of the atherosclerotic lesion has not been done from this viewpoint.