l-Arginine Supplementation Alleviates Postprandial Endothelial Dysfunction When Baseline Fasting Plasma Arginine Concentration Is Low: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Healthy Overweight Adults with Cardiometabolic Risk Factors.

Background: Vascular endothelial dysfunction, the hallmark of early atherosclerosis, is induced transiently by a high-fat meal. High doses of free l-arginine supplements reduce fasting endothelial dysfunction.

Objective: We sought to determine the effects of a low dose of a sustained-release (SR) l-arginine supplement on postprandial endothelial function in healthy overweight adults with cardiometabolic risk factors and to investigate whether this effect may vary by baseline arginine status.

Evidence for a Specific Diabetic Cardiomyopathy: An Observational Retrospective Echocardiographic Study in 656 Asymptomatic Type 2 Diabetic Patients.

Aim. Our aim was to assess the prevalence of subclinical diabetic cardiomyopathy, occurring among diabetic patients without hypertension or coronary artery disease (CAD). Methods.

Noninvasive study of coronary microcirculation response to a cold pressor test.

Background: The aims of this study were to noninvasively (i) assess the coronary microcirculation changes in response to a cold pressor test (CPT) in control subjects, nondiabetic obese patients and patients with type 2 diabetes and (ii) investigate the response of the coronary microcirculation in patients with diabetes according to the presence or the absence of silent myocardial ischaemia (SMI), asymptomatic coronary stenosis (CS) and left ventricle hypertrophy (LVH).

Methods: The mean left anterior descending coronary flow velocity (mCFV) was measured using transthoracic Doppler before and after a CPT in 16 control subjects, 11 obese and 66 asymptomatic diabetic patients with a high cardiovascular risk. Patients with diabetes were screened for SMI using stress myocardial scintigraphy and/or echocardiography.

Flow-mediated-paradoxical vasoconstriction is independently associated with asymptomatic myocardial ischemia and coronary artery disease in type 2 diabetic patients.

Background: To investigate whether flow-mediated dilation (FMD) impairment, which precedes overt atherosclerosis, is associated with silent myocardial ischemia (SMI) and asymptomatic coronary artery disease (CAD) in type 2 diabetes.

Methods: Forearm FMD was measured by ultrasonography in 25 healthy control, 30 non-diabetic overweight or obese patients and 118 asymptomatic type 2 diabetic patients with a high cardiovascular risk profile. SMI (abnormal stress myocardial scintiscan and/or stress dobutamine echocardiogram) and CAD (coronary angiography in the patients with SMI) were assessed in the diabetic cohort.

Epo deficiency alters cardiac adaptation to chronic hypoxia.

The involvement of erythropoietin in cardiac adaptation to acute and chronic (CHx) hypoxia was investigated in erythropoietin deficient transgenic (Epo-TAg(h)) and wild-type (WT) mice. Left (LV) and right ventricular functions were assessed by echocardiography and hemodynamics. HIF-1α, VEGF and Epo pathways were explored through RT-PCR, ELISA, Western blot and immunocytochemistry.

Inhibition of vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration in vitro and neointimal hyperplasia in vivo by adenoviral-mediated atrial natriuretic peptide delivery.

Background: Vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation and migration are important components of the remodeling process in atherosclerosis or following angioplasty. Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) inhibits the growth of VSMCs in vitro but this effect has not been proven in vivo. In the present study, we examined the effects of local overexpression of ANP following gene transfer on in vitro VSMC proliferation and migration and in vivo neointimal formation in a rat carotid artery model of vascular injury.

Bosentan effects in hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction: Preliminary study in subjects with or without high altitude pulmonary edema-history.

Hypoxia-induced pulmonary vasoconstriction in patients with a medical history of high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) may involve activation of the endothelin-1 (ET-1) pathway. We, therefore, compared the effect of the ETA/ETB receptor antagonist, bosentan, on pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP) in healthy subjects with (HS: HAPE subjects, n=5) or without a HAPE-history (CS: Control subjects, n=10). A double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover design was performed in order to study the effects on PASP of a single oral dose of bosentan (250 mg) after 90 min exposure to normobaric hypoxia (FiO(2) =0.

Amebic liver abscess, extensive thrombosis, and patent cardiac foramen ovale.

Extensive venous thrombosis is usually seen postmortem in amebic liver abscess because of its dismal prognosis. Herein, we describe amebic liver abscess, whose late diagnosis led to multiple deep thromboses, pulmonary embolism, and right atrial thrombosis, in this patient with patent foramen ovale.

Pulmonary pressure and cardiac function in chronic mountain sickness patients.

Background: Chronic mountain sickness (CMS) is characterized by a loss of adaptation to hypoxia in high-altitude (HA) dwellers. Chronic hypoxemia, excessive erythrocytosis and frequently pulmonary hypertension (PH), which may lead to cardiac failure, develop in patients. We sought to assess the determinants of cardiac function in CMS patients with hypoxia-induced PH.

Acetazolamide for Monge's disease: efficiency and tolerance of 6-month treatment.

Rationale: Monge's disease is characterized by an excessive erythrocytosis, frequently associated with pulmonary hypertension, in high-altitude dwellers. It has a considerable impact on public health in high-altitude regions. A preliminary study demonstrated the efficiency of acetazolamide (Acz) (250 mg/d for 3 wk) in reducing serum erythropoietin and hematocrit.

A modified Cockcroft-Gault formula taking into account the body surface area gives a more accurate estimation of the glomerular filtration rate.

We sought to validate the improvement by adjustment for body surface area (BSA) of the accuracy of the original Cockcroft-Gault equation to estimate glomerular filtration rate (GFR), in a prospective cross-sectional study of 269 European patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We compared 3 methods: original Cockcroft-Gault equation, modified Cockcroft-Gault formula adjusted for BSA and abbreviated Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equation, using inulin clearance. Statistical analyses comprised repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), determination of the Pearson coefficient of correlation and a Bland-Altman concordance study.

Impaired coronary endothelium-dependent vasodilation is associated with microalbuminuria in patients with type 2 diabetes and angiographically normal coronary arteries.

Objective: Microalbuminuria and impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilation are both predictors for cardiac events in patients with type 2 diabetes. The aim of the study was to evaluate whether microalbuminuria correlated with coronary endothelium-dependent vasodilation.

Research Design And Methods: We evaluated 84 patients (47 men, mean age 50.

Cardiovascular outcome of patients with abnormal coronary vasomotion and normal coronary arteriography is worse in type 2 diabetes mellitus than in arterial hypertension: a 10 year follow-up study.

Diabetes and arterial hypertension are major cardiovascular risk factors. Coronary endothelial dysfunction is frequently observed in diabetic and hypertensive patients. This study was designed to compare cardiovascular outcome of hypertensive (HT) and type 2 diabetic patients (D2) with angiographically normal coronary arteries on the basis of their epicardial coronary endothelial function.

Sildenafil inhibits altitude-induced hypoxemia and pulmonary hypertension.

Exposure to high altitude induces pulmonary hypertension that may lead to life-threatening conditions. In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the effects of oral sildenafil on altitude-induced pulmonary hypertension and gas exchange in normal subjects were examined. Twelve subjects (sildenafil [SIL] n = 6; placebo [PLA] n = 6) were exposed for 6 days at 4,350 m.

Hypoxia upregulates VEGF expression in alveolar epithelial cells in vitro and in vivo.

We investigated regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression by hypoxia in cultured and freshly isolated rat alveolar epithelial cells (AEC). In vitro, hypoxia increased VEGF mRNA and protein levels, with maximal stimulation at 0% O2 for 18 h. A similar upregulation of VEGF expression was found in alveolar epithelial type II (ATII) cells freshly isolated from rats exposed to 8% O2 for 24 h.