Arg389Gly-beta1-adrenergic receptors determine improvement in left ventricular systolic function in nonischemic cardiomyopathy patients with heart failure after chronic treatment with carvedilol.

Objective: Administration of the beta-adrenergic receptor blocker carvedilol to patients with chronic heart failure leads to clinically significant benefits, including improvement in left ventricular systolic function in some, but not all, patients. We sought to determine the basis of the variable effect obtained with carvedilol in patients with heart failure. Carvedilol blocks both beta1-adrenergic and beta2-adrenergic receptors, and both receptors exist as polymorphisms.

Clinical experience of sirolimus-eluting stents in patients with coronary artery disease at Bangkok Heart Institute.

Drug eluting stents represent one of the fastest growing fields in interventional cardiology today. From a recent study, the sirolimus eluting stent (SES) (CYPHER, Cordis, Johnson & Johnson) appear to demonstrate a remarkable efficacy and safety in preventing restenosis. From the present study, the authors reported clinical experience of SES in 40 consecutive patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) between 25th June and 11th October, 2002.