Rational management of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and poor left ventricular (LV) function relies on proper identification of the subgroup at high risk and those who have the highest potential of benefiting from a particular type of treatment. Before the advent of imaging techniques to determine myocardial viability, many patients with CAD and low ejection fractions (EFs) were r...

OBJECTIVE The SAVE study showed that captopril improves mortality in patients with left ventricular dysfunction after myocardial infarction and that this benefit occurred even in patients with no clinically overt heart failure. On the basis of this, it seems important to identify correctly which patients have left ventricular dysfunction after a myocardial infarction. The objective was to compa...

Background—Excessive myocardial fibrosis impairs cardiac function in hypertensive hearts. Roles of transforming growth factor (TGF)in myocardial remodeling and cardiac dysfunction were examined in pressure-overloaded rats. Methods and Results—Pressure overload was induced by a suprarenal aortic constriction in Wistar rats. Fibroblast activation (proliferation and phenotype transition to myofibr...

Sepsis-induced myocardial dysfunction increases mortality in sepsis, yet the underlying mechanism is unclear. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been found to enhance cardiomyocyte function, but whether BDNF has a beneficial effect against septic myocardial dysfunction is unknown. Septic shock was induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). BDNF was expressed in primary cardiomyocyt...

BACKGROUND Excessive myocardial fibrosis impairs cardiac function in hypertensive hearts. Roles of transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta in myocardial remodeling and cardiac dysfunction were examined in pressure-overloaded rats. METHODS AND RESULTS Pressure overload was induced by a suprarenal aortic constriction in Wistar rats. Fibroblast activation (proliferation and phenotype transition to...