Association between stress hyperglycemia on admission and unfavorable neurological outcome in OHCA patients receiving ECPR.

Background: Stress hyperglycemia is a normal response to stress and has been associated with outcomes in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients. However, this association remained unknown in OHCA patients receiving extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR). This study aimed to examine the association between degree of stress hyperglycemia on admission and neurological outcomes at discharge in OHCA patients receiving ECPR.

Potent effect of prasugrel on acute phase resolution of intra-stent athero-thrombotic burden after percutaneous intervention to acute coronary syndrome.

Background: Recent studies suggested protruding thrombus and atheroma after stent placement could be a substrate for subsequent adverse ischemic events. Although protruded atherothrombotic burden can be assessed as intra-stent tissue (IST) by optical coherence tomography (OCT), the effects of potent antiplatelet therapy on the acute phase resolution of IST in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) was unknown.

Methods: Ninety-six consecutive ACS patients with multi-vessel disease were enrolled in this prospective registry.

The importance of catheter stability evaluated by Visitag(TM) during pulmonary vein isolation.

Background: The recurrence rates of atrial fibrillation (Af) after ablation are still high, and repeat procedures are required in these patients. The main reason for Af recurrence is the recovery of the conduction between the pulmonary veins and left atrium. The importance of catheter stability during the pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) is not well studied.

Optical coherence tomography study of chronic-phase vessel healing after implantation of bare metal and paclitaxel-eluting self-expanding nitinol stents in the superficial femoral artery.

Background: This study aimed to assess chronic-phase suppression of neointimal proliferation and arterial healing following paclitaxel-coated (PTX) and bare metal stent (BMS) implantation in the superficial femoral artery using optical coherence tomography (OCT).

Methods: Twenty-five patients with 68 stents underwent an 8-month OCT follow-up. Besides standard OCT variables, neointimal characterization and frequencies of peri-strut low-intensity area (PLIA), macrophage accumulation, and in-stent thrombi were evaluated.

Deficiency of nectin-2 leads to cardiac fibrosis and dysfunction under chronic pressure overload.

The intercalated disc, a cell-cell contact site between neighboring cardiac myocytes, plays an important role in maintaining the homeostasis of the heart by transmitting electric and mechanical signals. Changes in the architecture of the intercalated disc have been observed in dilated cardiomyopathy. Among cell-cell junctions in the intercalated disc, adherens junctions are involved in anchoring myofibrils and transmitting force.

Plasma tetrahydrobiopterin/dihydrobiopterin ratio: a possible marker of endothelial dysfunction.

Background: Although endothelium-dependent vasodilatation has been used as a marker of endothelial dysfunction (ED), there have been no reliable plasma markers for ED. Oxidative stress, which is a major determinant of ED, oxidizes tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), an essential cofactor of endothelial type nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and resulted in the relative deficiency of BH4.

Methods And Results: In 163 patients with cardiovascular disorders, the plasma levels of BH4 and 7, 8-dihydrobiopterin (BH2) by high performance liquid chromatography were measured and compared with the flow-mediated (FMD) vasodilatory response of the brachial artery, which was measured by ultrasonography.

Beneficial effects of exogenous tetrahydrobiopterin on left ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction in rats: the possible role of oxidative stress caused by uncoupled endothelial nitric oxide synthase.

Background: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) is deeply involved in the process of ventricular remodeling after myocardial infarction (MI). Under oxidative stress, endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) can be converted to a ROS generator, because a relative lack of tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4), an essential cofactor for NO synthesis, leads to eNOS uncoupling. The uncoupled eNOS generates superoxide rather than NO.