Agonists of epoxyeicosatrienoic acids reduce infarct size and ameliorate cardiac dysfunction via activation of HO-1 and Wnt1 canonical pathway.

Myocardial infarction (MI) is complicated by ventricular fibrosis and associated diastolic and systolic failure. Emerging studies implicate Wnt1 signaling in the formation of new blood vessels. Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs)-mediated up-regulation of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) protects against the detrimental consequences of MI in several animal models, however, the mechanism(s) by which this occurs remains unclear.

Clinical outcomes following IVUS-guided stent deployment in a community hospital.

Objectives: A discrepancy exists in the medical literature as to what effect intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-guided stent deployment has on target vessel revascularization (TVR) at 6 months. The major endpoints of this study are the need for TVR, defined as clinically driven repeat interventional or surgical therapy of the index vessel at 6 months and major adverse cardiac events.

Methods: One hundred interventional stent cases (50 IVUS-guided, 50 non-IVUS guided) were randomly selected in a 6-month period (January to June 2001) for review by measurement of minimal luminal diameter (MLD) pre- and post-intervention.

Obesity and the risk for cardiovascular disease.

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the leading cause of mortality in the United States. Hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, and smoking have all been directly related to CHD. Obesity is on the rise in the United States and has also been associated with CHD.

Increased sensitivity of the obese Zucker rat to deoxycorticosterone-salt-induced hypertension.

Objective: The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that obesity increases the sensitivity of rats to experimentally induced hypertension.

Design And Methods: To induce hypertension, unilaterally nephrectomized lean and obese Zucker rats were injected with 25 mg/kg of deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) twice weekly for 5 weeks and given water containing 1% NaCl to drink. Unilaterally nephrectomized control rats were injected with vehicle and drank tap water.