Heart Failure and Functional Recovery Heart failure is a leading cause of healthcare expenditures, hospitalization, and mortality in developed countries, and its burden is growing globally. With the aging of the population and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and obesity, the current heart failure epidemic is guaranteed to significantly worse...

BACKGROUND Myocardial hibernation and stunning are characterized by depressed cardiac function in the presence of reduced or normal coronary blood flow. The underlying biochemical mechanisms are widely unknown and only limited data are available in human hearts. METHODS AND RESULTS Left ventricular transmural myocardial biopsies were obtained from normal and dysfunctional segments of patients...

BACKGROUND Rapid reperfusion of an occluded coronary artery salvages regional mechanical function, but this benefit may not be realized for hours or days because of postischemic stunning. Recovery from stunning is incompletely understood but may involve adaptive changes in heart glucose metabolism. METHODS AND RESULTS To examine whether reversible coronary occlusion produces sustained changes...

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that abnormal intracellular calcium handling characterizes myocardial stunning. Isolated, isovolumic, buffer-perfused ferret hearts were loaded with the bioluminescent calcium indicator aequorin for simultaneous measurement of individual calcium transients and left ventricular pressure. After 15 minutes of global ischemia and 20 minutes of re...

Over the past 2 to 3 decades, several phenomena have been identified that provide powerful protection against myocardial infarction and other sequelae of ischemia/reperfusion1: myocardial hibernation that is related to stunning,2 ischemic preconditioning,3 delayed or second-window ischemic preconditioning,4 ischemic postconditioning,5 and their pharmacological recruitment. Stunning and hibernat...

AIMS Post-systolic wall thickening (PSWT) occurs after aortic valve closure. This waste of thickening does not participate in ejection. PSWT increases with myocardial ischaemia and stunning but the effects of anti-anginal drugs on PSWT during myocardial dysfunction remain unknown. The effects of two heart rate reducing agents, i.e. the beta-blocker atenolol and the selective I(f) current inhibi...

OBJECTIVES This study investigated the effect of prolonged cardiac arrest and subsequent cardiopulmonary resuscitation on left ventricular systolic and diastolic function. BACKGROUND Cardiac arrest from ventricular fibrillation results in cessation of forward blood flow, including myocardial blood flow. During cardiopulmonary resuscitation, myocardial blood flow remains suboptimal. Once the h...

Patients with severe chronic coronary artery disease (CAD) exhibit a highly altered myocardial pattern of perfusion, metabolism, and mechanical performance. In this context, the diagnosis of stunning remains elusive not only because of methodological and logistic considerations, but also because of the pathophysiological characteristics of the myocardium of these patients. In addition, a number...

Ischemic heart failure: pathophysiological aspects Under certain conditions, when viable myocytes are subject to ischemia, prolonged alterations in regional or global LV function may occur and this dysfunction may be completely reversible. This condition may be related to two pathophysiological states: stunned and hibernating myocardium. Stunned myocardium refers to the state of persistent regi...