Publications by authors named "Yukihito Higashi"
The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between continuation of exercise habit for a long period and endothelial function assessed by flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) in patients with hypertension. This study was a multicenter retrospective observational study. A total of 639 patients with hypertension were enrolled in this study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExperimental and clinical studies have suggested atherosclerotic effects of uric acid (UA) on vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Nitroglycerine-induced vasodilation (NID), a control test for flow-mediated vasodilation, can be used as a possible marker of VSMC dysfunction. However, there is little information on the association between UA and NID.
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- - Noninvasive tests of vascular function play a crucial role in evaluating atherosclerosis severity, cardiovascular event risk, and the effects of treatments on heart health.
- - Recent literature from 2023-2024 in major cardiovascular journals highlights significant advancements in understanding vascular function.
- - This review aims to aid clinicians in managing patients with cardiovascular risk factors while supporting future research on vascular health.
Measurement of flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) in the brachial artery by using ultrasound is a well-established technique for evaluating endothelial function. To make the measurement quicker and simpler than the measurements of conventional ultrasound FMD (uFMD), we have developed a new noninvasive method, plethysmographic FMD (pFMD), to assess vascular response to reactive hyperemia in the brachial artery. The aim of this study was to determine the accuracy of measurement of pFMD in comparison to that of measurement of conventional uFMD.
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- The study investigates the effects of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) on patients with Buerger disease, a type of peripheral arterial disease.
- A total of 12 patients received LIPUS treatment for 24 weeks while another 12 served as a control group without treatment.
- Results showed that LIPUS significantly reduced pain intensity and increased skin perfusion pressure in treated patients, with no severe adverse effects reported, suggesting it is a safe and effective noninvasive option for symptom improvement.
Article Synopsis
- Buerger disease, also known as thromboangiitis obliterans, causes inflammation in small- and medium-sized arteries, leading to serious issues like chronic limb-threatening ischaemia (CLTI) and potential limb amputation, even with smoking cessation and exercise.
- A case study of a 72-year-old Japanese man with severe CLTI and renal issues showed improvement using low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) after conventional treatment failed.
- LIPUS is a promising non-invasive treatment that may enhance blood flow and reduce symptoms in peripheral arterial disease, potentially preventing major amputations.
Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, specifically empagliflozin, affect blood pressure in Japanese patients with type 2 diabetes who are at high risk for cardiovascular disease.
- In a post-hoc analysis from the EMBLEM trial, researchers compared 105 participants taking empagliflozin versus a placebo over 24 weeks and measured changes in blood pressure.
- Results showed that empagliflozin significantly reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure, with reductions in mean arterial pressure, and this effect was consistent across various clinical backgrounds and antihypertensive medication usage.
Upstroke time (UT) and percentage of mean arterial pressure (%MAP) at the ankle have been shown to serve as atherosclerotic markers. The purpose of this study was to directly compare the diagnostic accuracy of UT with that of %MAP for clinical coronary artery disease (CAD) in subjects with a normal ankle-brachial index (ABI) in both legs. We measured UT and %MAP in 1953 subjects with a normal ABI.
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- The study examined the link between insulin resistance in adipose tissue and various parameters of the common carotid artery (CCA), such as diameter, plaque score, and resistance index (RI), in 1089 participants over several decades.
- Researchers found a strong association between adipose insulin resistance (Adipo-IR) and high RI, indicating that increased insulin resistance may predict higher vascular resistance.
- However, Adipo-IR was not linked to CCA diameter or plaque score, suggesting that while insulin resistance affects vascular resistance, it may not directly impact the structural aspects of carotid arteries.
Article Synopsis
- - The study assessed the BNT162b2 vaccine's impact on vascular function in 23 medical staff at Hiroshima University Hospital, focusing on endothelial function (measured by flow-mediated vasodilation, FMD) and vascular smooth muscle function (measured by nitroglycerine-induced vasodilation, NID).
- - Results showed that FMD declined significantly two weeks after the second vaccine dose, but improved at six months, returning to baseline levels; there was no significant change in NID across the study periods.
- - Overall, the findings suggest that while the BNT162b2 vaccine temporarily affected endothelial function, it did not influence vascular smooth muscle function and the endothelial function normalized within six months.
Context: A Body Shape Index (ABSI) has been reported to have associations with cardiovascular risk factors. However, there is no information on the association between ABSI and incidence of cardiovascular events.
Methods: We investigated the associations between ABSI and first major cardiovascular events (death from cardiovascular disease, nonfatal acute coronary syndrome, and nonfatal stroke) in 1857 subjects from the database of Flow-Mediated Dilation Japan registry and from Hiroshima University Vascular Function registry.
Objective: We investigated the interrelationship between hyperglycemia and hypertension on cardiovascular mortality in the middle-aged and elderly people.
Methods: In this retrospective cohort study that used data from the Hiroshima Study on Glucose Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, we included 16,564 participants without cardiovascular disease (mean age: 65.8 years; 6179 normoglycemic people, 3017 people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, and 7368 people with prediabetes per the 75-g oral glucose tolerance test).
The patient was a 63-year-old man with a 24-year history of hypertension. During long-term follow-up, when outpatient clinic blood pressure and morning blood pressure are well-regulated, exceptionally elevated early-morning blood pressure does not play a significant role in the development of hypertensive target organ disease or cardiovascular disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To analyse the changes in erythropoietic and estimated fluid volume parameters after the initiation of ipragliflozin, a sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor, in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Methods: This was a post-hoc analysis of the PROCEED trial, which evaluated the effect of 24-week ipragliflozin treatment on endothelial dysfunction in patients with T2DM and CKD. We evaluated the changes in erythropoietic and estimated fluid volume parameters from baseline to 24 weeks post-treatment in 53 patients who received ipragliflozin (ipragliflozin group) and 55 patients with T2DM and CKD without sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (control group), a full analysis set of the PROCEED trial.
Background: The relationship between cumulative low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) exposure and progression of atherosclerosis remains uncertain.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between cumulative LDL-C level and flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD), nitroglycerine-induced vasodilation (NID) and the presence of plaque in the common carotid artery (CCA).
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of administration of overnight 1 mg dexamethasone on vascular function in patients with nonfunctioning adrenal adenomas (NFA). Flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) and nitroglycerine-induced vasodilation (NID) were measured to assess vascular function in 22 patients with NFA who had hypertension and/or diabetes mellitus (DM) and 272 patients without adrenal incidentalomas who had hypertension and/or DM (control patients with hypertension and/or DM). FMD and NID were measured in the morning before and after administration of 1 mg of dexamethasone at 2300 h in 18 patients with NFA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCardiovascular mortality has been shown to vary seasonally. However, it has not been determined whether vascular function is affected by the season. The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations of vascular function with season and outdoor temperature.
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