Abstract Background Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease characterized by small pulmonary arteries remodeling that leads to increased vascular resistance, dyspnea, fatigue, right heart failure and ultimately death. Prostacyclin analogue drugs, such as epoprostenol or treprostinil, have vasodilator, antiproliferative immunomodulatory effect, representing established the...

The nadir of SaO2 during an obstructive apnea is dependent upon the apnea's duration and the rate of fall of saturation (dSaO2/dt). We postulated that a low Q, such as in patients with congestive heart failure with sleep apnea, or a reduction in Q, as seen in some humans during obstructive sleep apnea, might steepen dSaO2/dt. The mechanism postulated was lowering of SvO2 with increased pulmonar...

BACKGROUND Outcome of stage 1 palliation (S1P) for hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) has improved coincident with application of treatment strategies including continuous superior vena cava oximetry (SvO2), phenoxybenzamine (POB), strategies to minimize the duration of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) and efforts to ameliorate the inflammatory response to cardiopulmonary bypass (...

The purpose of this study was to elucidate the difference in inotrope use between patients who underwent left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation with preoperative extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) and those who underwent LVAD implantation without preoperative ECMO. One hundred and eight patients who underwent LVAD implantation were enrolled in this study. Prior to LVAD impla...

OBJECTIVE To study the normal values of the retinal oxygen saturation in Rhesus monkeys and to evaluated repeatability and reproducibility of retinal oxygen saturation measurements. METHODS Eighteen adult Rhesus macaque monkeys were included in this experimental study. An Oxymap T1 retinal oximeter (Oxymap, Reykjavik, Iceland) was used to perform oximetry on all subjects. Global arterial (SaO...

Right ventricular failure (RVF) secondary to pulmonary regurgitation (PR) impairs right ventricular (RV) function and interrupts the interventricular relationship. There are few recommendations for the medical management of severe RVF after prolonged PR. PR was induced in 16 Danish landrace pigs by plication of the pulmonary valve leaflets. Twenty-three pigs served as controls. At reexamination...

BACKGROUND Radiation retinopathy is a possible post-treatment complication of radiation therapy. The pathophysiologic mechanism is hypothesized to be microvascular in origin, but evidence is limited. In an effort to study retinal oxygenation in these patients, we herein evaluate the repeatability and variability of retinal oximetry measurements in subjects who had previously received radiation ...

INTRODUCTION Arginine vasopressin (AVP) is increasingly used to treat sepsis-related vasodilation and to decrease catecholamine requirements. However, AVP infusion may be associated with a marked decrease in systemic blood flow and oxygen transport. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether dobutamine may be titrated to reverse the AVP-related decrease in cardiac index (CI) and s...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To evaluate the response to therapy aimed at achieving supranormal cardiac and oxygen transport variables (cardiac index [CI] > 4.5 L/min/m2, oxygen delivery [DO2] > 600 ml/min/m2, and oxygen consumption [VO2] > 170 ml/min/m2) in a heterogenous group of critically ill patients and to assess its relationship to outcome. DESIGN Patients were divided retrospectively into two grou...