[Marked PT-INR prolongation associated with appetite loss due to urinary tract infection in a late elderly case with chronic atrial fibrillation].

An 80-year old woman presented with macroscopic hematuria on June 4(th), 2008. She had been suffering from general malaise and appetite loss since about 10 days previously. She had received anticoagulant therapy with warfarin due to chronic atrial fibrillation and PT-INR was well controlled between 1.

Role of a novel conduction pattern around the coronary sinus in cavotricuspid isthmus dependent right atrial flutter.

Objectives: We tested our hypothesis that, in atrial flutter (AFL) dependent on the cavotricuspid isthmus (CTI), lower loop reentry is the common pathway route at the coronary sinus posterior site, and thus, dual loop reentry is a common circular pattern.

Methods And Results: We studied 25 patients with CTI-dependent AFL, 16 with chronic counterclockwise atrial flutter (CCW-AFL) and 9 with clockwise atrial flutter (CW-AFL) and determined the precise reentry circuitry, especially for conduction patterns around the coronary sinus orifice, using electroanatomical mapping. We measured post pacing interval and tachycardia cycle length during entrainment from sites within the flutter circuit.

Leptin deficiency enhances myocardial necrosis and lethality in a murine model of viral myocarditis.

To investigate the role of leptin in the development of viral myocarditis and cardiac necrosis, we used a murine model of viral myocarditis. We intraperitoneally injected encephalomyocarditis virus (500 plaque-forming units/mouse) for wild type C57 BL/6 mice (WT) and leptin-deficient ob/ob mice (OB) (n = 20 for each). Ten-day survival rate was 25% in OB, whereas it was 95% in WT.

Imbalance of sex hormone levels in men with coronary artery disease.

Objective: Sex hormones are thought to play a key role in atherogenesis, but the available evidence is inconclusive, partly because of a lack of accuracy in measurement. The aim of the study was to investigate the potential role of sex hormones in coronary atherosclerosis.

Methods: We prospectively applied a simple highly-sensitive method using solid-phase extraction followed by radioimmunoassay.

Transient glucose deprivation causes upregulation of heme oxygenase-1 and cyclooxygenase-2 expression in cardiac fibroblasts.

Transient glucose deprivation (TGD) has been shown to induce a resistance to a subsequent ischemia and reperfusion injury in the heart. Induction of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is known to mediate the powerful defensive adaptation of the heart against oxidative stress. In this study, we found that a 30-min incubation in the absence of glucose resulted in a rapid increased expression of COX-2 and HO-1 in cardiac fibroblasts as examined by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and western blot analysis.

Myocardial glucose metabolism assessed by positron emission tomography and the histopathologic findings of microvessels in syndrome X.

Background: Syndrome X has been recognized as a disease that is primarily reflected in the cardiac microvasculature. Myocardial metabolism in this condition has been studied, but not in relation to small vessel pathology.

Methods And Results: In order to examine the relationship between myocardial metabolism and small vessel pathology, 24 consecutive patients with syndrome X (7 men, 17 women; mean age 58 years) were evaluated by the thallium exercise stress test, positron emission tomography using F-18 fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG), and an endomyocardial biopsy.