A case of sleep apnea syndrome manifesting severe hypertension with high plasma norepinephrine levels.

A 55-year-old female was admitted to our hospital with severe hypertension (274/140 mmHg). Endocrinological examination revealed that her plasma levels of norepinephrine (NE) was elevated with high levels of urinary NE, normetanephrine and vanillylmandelic acid (VMA), suggesting the presence of pheochromocytoma. However, neither computed tomography nor MIBG scintigraphy detected any catecholamine-producing tumor in or outside the adrenal glands.

Specific cardiomyopathy caused by multisystemic lipid storage in Jordans' anomaly.

Multisystemic lipid storage disease is a rare disorder of lipid metabolism. We report one case of a Japanese man with systemic lipid storage in skeletal muscle and heart as well as in leukocytes (Jordans' anomaly). Positron emission tomography (PET) using 18F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) clearly revealed an abnormal increase of uptake during fasting in the left ventricle, suggesting changes in the energy metabolism in the heart.

Role of plaque proliferation in late lumen loss after directional coronary atherectomy.

Previous reports suggest that vessel remodeling is the most important factor in late lumen loss in non-stented lesions, but because results of directional coronary atherectomy (DCA) show that increased plaque area (PA) is also important, the aim of this study was to redefine the mechanism of late lumen loss after DCA. One hundred and twenty lesions that underwent DCA with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) guidance and serial IVUS analysis were studied, and vessel area (VA), lumen area (LA), PA (VA-LA) and corrected values (each value divided by the value of VA pre procedure to correct the vessel size) were analyzed. During follow-up, corrected VA (cVA) decreased by 0.