Interobserver variability among experienced electrocardiogram readers to diagnose acute thrombotic coronary occlusion in patients with out of hospital cardiac arrest: Impact of metabolic milieu and angiographic culprit.

Objectives: We sought to evaluate interobserver concordance among experienced electrocardiogram (ECG) readers in predicting acute thrombotic coronary occlusion (ATCO) in the context of abnormal metabolic milieu (AMM) following resuscitated out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).

Methods: OHCA patients with initial shockable rhythm who underwent invasive coronary angiography (ICA) were included. AMM was defined as one of: pH < 7.

Killing of Streptococcus pneumoniae by capsular polysaccharide-specific polymeric IgA, complement, and phagocytes.

The role of IgA in the control of invasive mucosal pathogens such as Streptococcus pneumoniae is poorly understood. We demonstrate that human pneumococcal capsular polysaccharide-specific IgA initiated dose-dependent killing of S. pneumoniae with complement and phagocytes.

Relationship between hypercholesterolaemia, endothelial dysfunction and hypertension.

Objectives: We have previously shown that in the rat a diet high in cholesterol and deficient in vitamin E and selenium results in hypercholesterolaemia and increased lipid oxidation. We utilized this model to determine whether rats given this diet develop impaired endothelium-dependent relaxation mediated by nitric oxide (NO) in mesenteric and in renal vessels. In addition, we tested whether the impairment is due to (i) decreased endothelial NO synthase activity, (ii) increased NO inactivation and/or (iii) increased production of the endothelium-derived constricting factors thromboxane A2/prostaglandin H2 and endothelin-1.

Nitric oxide synthase activity and renal injury in genetic hypertension.

Nitric oxide (NO) is an endogenous vasodilator synthesized in the endothelium by constitutive NO synthase (cNOS). We have shown that upregulation of cNOS activity in hypertension may contribute to forestalling left ventricular and aortic hypertrophy (Hypertension. 29: 235, 1997).

Nitric oxide in hypertension: relationship with renal injury and left ventricular hypertrophy.

Hypertension is accompanied by architectural changes in the kidney, heart, and vessels that are often maladaptive and can eventually contribute to end-organ disease such as renal failure, heart failure, and coronary disease. Nitric oxide, an endogenous vasodilator and antithrombotic agent synthesized in the endothelium by a constitutive nitric oxide synthase, inhibits growth-related responses to injury in vascular cells. Specifically, in the presence of hypertension, nitric oxide may work in the kidney by inhibiting both mesangial cell hypertrophy and hyperplasia as well as synthesis of extracellular matrix and in the heart and systemic vessels by modulating smooth muscle cell hypertrophy and hyperplasia.

Endothelial dysfunction and cardiorenal injury in experimental salt-sensitive hypertension: effects of antihypertensive therapy.

Background: Pharmacological control of hypertension has contributed to a significant decrease in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, although the beneficial effect on cardiac and renal diseases has been far more modest than the reduction in stroke. The endothelium plays a crucial homeostatic role in the regulation of vascular tone thrombogenesis and vascular remodeling. We studied the relationship between endothelial dysfunction and cardiorenal injury in hypertensive rats and evaluated the effects of two classes of antihypertensive agents commonly used in the clinical setting, a diuretic (DIU) and an ACE inhibitor (CEI).

Mental rotation studied by functional magnetic resonance imaging at high field (4 tesla): performance and cortical activation.

We studied the performance and cortical activation patterns during a mental rotation task (Shepard & Metzler, 1971) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMlU) at high field (4 Tesla). Twenty-four human subjects were imaged (fMRI group), whereas six additional subjects performed the task without being imaged (control group). All subjects were shown pairs of perspective drawings of 31, objects and asked to judge whether they were the same or mirror images.