Renovascular disease in patients with hypertension: detection with systolic and diastolic gating in three-dimensional, phase-contrast MR angiography.

Purpose: To evaluate the usefulness of three-dimensional, phase-contrast magnetic resonance (MR) angiography performed with cardiac synchronization in the assessment of renal arteries.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-eight patients (24 men, 14 women) underwent three-dimensional, phase-contrast MR angiography without gating and with systolic and diastolic gating. Conventional angiography was used as the standard of reference.

Repeated automatic versus ambulatory blood pressure measurement: the effects of age and sex in a normal ageing population.

Objectives: To study blood pressure adaptation in relation to age and sex. In a subsample, laboratory blood pressure measurements were compared with ambulatory daytime blood pressure measurements to determine the degree of agreement between the two methods. The night-time blood pressure reduction was analysed as a function of blood pressure status, age and sex.

A prospective study of the natural history of idiopathic non-proteinuric hematuria.

In a prospective study of idiopathic glomerulonephritis we determined the natural history of 49 adult patients (12 primary IgA nephropathy, 13 thin GBM nephropathy, 20 normal renal tissue and 4 miscellaneous nephropathies) who presented with idiopathic non-proteinuric non-azotemic hematuria of at least six months duration, in the absence of hypertension and with a negative urological work-up. The median follow-up was 11 years with a range of 8 to 14 years. At the end of the follow-up, renal function had remained stable in all subsets except for those with miscellaneous disease.

Quantitative analysis of retinal vascular changes in essential and renovascular hypertension.

Objective: To describe a quantitative analysis method for retinal vascular changes and to study retinal vascular changes in patients with mild essential or renovascular hypertension in relation to 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

Patients And Methods: A cross-sectional prospective study was performed in 10 patients with essential hypertension and nine with renovascular hypertension selected from the outpatient clinic (continuing medication) compared with eight age-matched normotensive control subjects. Fundal photography was performed in both eyes, preceded or succeeded (in random order) by 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

Circulating adrenaline is not involved in the circadian blood pressure profile.

Background: Circadian changes in blood pressure are paralleled by analogous circadian changes in plasma catecholamines: blood pressure, plasma noradrenaline and adrenaline fall at night.

Objective: To determine whether adrenaline is a prerequisite for the nocturnal fall in blood pressure, the circadian blood pressure profile was studied in adrenalectomized subjects, lacking circulating adrenaline.

Subjects And Methods: Ten adrenalectomized subjects and 10 healthy age-matched normotensive controls underwent 24-h non-invasive ambulatory blood pressure monitoring with the Oxford Medilog device.

Interpretation of captopril renography by nuclear medicine physicians.

Unlabelled: This study was designed to assess intra- and interobserver variability and diagnostic accuracy of nuclear medicine physicians in their evaluation of baseline and captopril renograms.

Methods: The diagnostic performance of three experienced nuclear medicine physicians according to their interpretation of baseline, captopril and paired renograms was assessed. To this end, the readers evaluated the renograms of 28 hypertensive patients in whom a diagnosis of renovascular hypertension was suspected on the basis of clinical clues.

Trough-to-peak versus surface ratio in the assessment of antihypertensive agents. APTH Investigators. Ambulatory Blood Pressure and Treatment of Hypertension.

This study investigated whether the 'surface ratio', a novel index to characterize long-acting antihypertensive agents, would provide a more reproducible estimate of the duration of the antihypertensive effect than the more commonly used trough-to-peak ratio. In 66 hypertensive patients (diastolic pressure on conventional measurement > 95 mmHg), the ambulatory blood pressure was measured on a placebo at baseline and 2 months later, while the patients took 10 mg lisinopril once a day between 7 p.m.

Trandolapril: a clinical profile.

Trandolapril is a new angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor that effectively lowers blood pressure in doses up to 2 mg. Only a small additional effect is seen with higher doses. The drug is transformed in vivo to the active metabolite trandolaprilat.

Vascular reactivity during haemodialysis and isolated ultrafiltration: thermal influences.

Background: The present study was performed to assess the role of the extracorporeal blood temperature in the disparate cardiovascular response between isolated ultrafiltration and combined ultrafiltration-haemodialysis.

Methods: In twelve stable dialysis patients (21-77 years), blood pressure and heart rate (Finapres) as well as forearm vascular resistance and venous tone (strain-gauge plethysmography) were measured during 1-h isolated ultrafiltration and 1-h combined ultrafiltration-haemodialysis (bicarbonate, sodium 141 mmol/l) at a fixed ultrafiltration rate of 0.91 l/h.

'Captopril test', with blood pressure and peripheral renin as response variables in hypertensive patients with suspected renal artery stenosis.

In forty six hypertensive patients in whom a high level of clinical suspicion for renovascular hypertension was present on the basis of clinical clues, a captopril test was performed with either 25 mg of captopril or placebo on 2 separate days to determine prospectively the value of the captopril test. Blood pressure (BP) and peripheral renin were used as response variables. All patients had discontinued their anti-hypertensive medication and were not salt depleted.

Selective enhancement of alpha 2-adrenoceptor-mediated vasoconstriction in insulin-dependent diabetic patients with microalbuminuria.

1. Microalbuminuria, the earliest clinical marker of microvascular disease, is an important predictor of early death in insulin-dependent diabetes, and abnormal vascular reactivity may contribute to microvascular disease. We have previously found that vasoconstrictive responses to noradrenaline are exaggerated in insulin-dependent diabetic patients with microalbuminuria as compared with both normoalbuminuric insulin-dependent diabetic patients and non-diabetic control subjects.

Salt-sensitivity testing in patients with borderline hypertension: reproducibility and potential mechanisms.

We examined the reproducibility of dietary salt-sensitivity testing by studying the effects on blood pressure (BP) of low sodium intake (20 mmol/day) and high sodium intake (220 mmol/day) in 10 men with borderline hypertension on two separate occasions. A difference in mean arterial pressure of 8 mm Hg between the high salt and the low salt regimen was arbitrarily chosen to define salt sensitivity. In addition, the reproducibility of changes in renal haemodynamics and in humoral factors, such as plasma renin activity, plasma aldosterone, atrial natriuretic peptide and urinary dopa and dopamine excretion, on the alteration in sodium intake were studied.

Vascular compliance in sodium-sensitive and sodium-resistant borderline hypertensive patients.

Recently, we demonstrated a reduction in the compliance of the carotid, femoral and brachial arteries in sodium-sensitive subjects who had consumed a regular sodium intake of approximately 120 mmol per day, as compared to both sodium-resistant borderline hypertensive subjects and normotensive controls. Venous compliance was not different between the two borderline hypertensive groups and was only slightly lesser than in controls. Large artery compliance was studied using a non-invasive ultrasound vessel wall movement detector system, while venous compliance was determined by means of strain gauge plethysmography.

Renal arterial and venous endothelin in hypertensive patients with or without renal artery stenosis.

Immunoreactive endothelin (ir-ET) levels were measured in the renal veins and aorta of 43 untreated hypertensive patients immediately before renal angiography. None of the patients used antihypertensive medication. Twenty-seven patients had renal artery stenosis, 17 of which were unilateral and 10 bilateral.

Hemodynamic, neurohumoral, and myocardial energetic effects of pimobendan, a novel calcium-sensitizing compound, in patients with mild to moderate heart failure.

In contrast to cyclic AMP-dependent positive inotropes, the calcium-sensitizer and partial phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitor pimobendan may induce beneficial effects in heart failure. However, its effect on relaxation, myocardial energetics and neurohormones are unknown. Twelve patients with heart failure, New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification II-III, due to ischemic cardiomyopathy, were studied for 1 h after they received 5 mg pimobendan intravenously (i.

The effects of 7-hour local hyperglycaemia on forearm macro and microcirculatory blood flow and vascular reactivity in healthy man.

Animal studies suggest that hyperglycaemia directly affects local blood flow and vascular reactivity. We studied the effects of 7 h of local forearm hyperglycaemia, on forearm (muscle) and skin microcirculatory blood flow in 12 healthy men. Furthermore, the effects of this local hyperglycaemia on forearm vasoreactivity to noradrenaline were studied.

Differential tissue expression of Annexin VIII in human.

The expression of Annexins V and VIII by human lung, liver, kidney, skin, heart, uterus, spleen and skeletal muscle was investigated by ELISA. All investigated tissues contained Annexin V. Its level varied with the tissue from around 5 microgram (skin) to approximately 120 micrograms (spleen) per g of wet tissue.