bicuspid aortic valve is traditionally considered an innocuous congenital anomaly. due to a better and widespread availability of non-invasive imaging techniques, it has come to the fore that 30% of these cases develop complications, viz., valve abnormality (aortic regurgitation and stenosis), and aneurysm of aortic root and ascending aorta. sinus of valsalva aneurysm is an uncommon complicatio...

an 80-year-old diabetic man with severe aortic stenosis was admitted to our hospital for cardiogenic shock complicating non-st-elevation myocardial infarction. echocardiographic evaluation showed also a severe degree of both left ventricular dysfunction and mitral regurgitation. the patient was initially stabilized with inotropes and mechanical ventilation was necessary because of concurrent pu...

Vasa vasorum (VV) are small arteries which penetrate the arterial wall both through the luminal surface (vasa vasorum internae) and the adventitia (vasa vasorum externae). Adventitial VV ramify into smaller vessels supplying the outer media layers. Venous VV are more numerous and also supply mainly the outer media. In humans, arteries containing less than 29 cellular layers or less than 0.5 mm ...

The present study evaluated the beneficial effect of aqueous extract of garlic (Allium sativum L.; 100mg/kg/day) on the alterations in vascular reactivity of streptozotocin-diabetic rats. After 8 weeks of treatment, thoracic aortic rings of rats were mounted in organ baths and contractile responses to phenylephrine and relaxant responses to acetylcholine and isosorbide dinitrate were assessed. ...

Our purpose was to determine whether the action of oxidative free radicals released by endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells grown in culture could be responsible for certain modifications to low density lipoprotein (LDL). In these experiments we showed that after a 48-hour incubation with human umbilical vein endothelial cells or bovine aortic smooth muscle cells, human LDL: 1) be...

Intermittent fasting (IF), a type of feeding regimen where the frequency of eating is reduced enhances cardiovascular stress adaptation and improves cardiovascular risk factors in rats. Data on the effect of IF on the endothelium is not common, so we examined whether IF showed similarity to documented beneficial effects of caloric restriction on endothelium-dependent vasodilatory responses of r...

a 46 year old man had been undergone aortic valve replacement (avr) due to mechanical aortic valve endocarditis two month ago. he was referred to imam khomeini hospital because of dyspnea since two weeks ago. echocardiography showed the false aneurysm, with an area of flow beyond the lumen of the aorta. this patient underwent reoperation, the previously implanted aortic valve was removed, metic...

Abstract
 Objective: This study aimed to investigate the antioxidant effects of folic acid and its on contraction relaxation responses in rat aorta hyperhomocysteinemic rats.
 Methods: Thirty-four male Wistar Albino rats were allocated into four groups. Rats hyperhomocysteinemia group (Group 1, n=9) received 1g/kg/day methionine via orogastric gavage for 30 days then injected with int...

Classically, ascending aortic dissection (AD) presents as sudden, severe chest pain that is tearing type and radiates to the back. Herein, we present a rare case of severe aortic regurgitation with silent ascending AD, which had no chest pain symptoms. The aortic valve apparatus probably masked this AD; therefore, it was not detected by echocardiography and during the surgery.

OBJECTIVE The chemokine fractalkine activates platelets and induces leukocyte adhesion to the endothelium. Expression of fractalkine and its receptor, CX3CR1, is elevated in coronary artery disease. We assessed the effects of fractalkine on vascular function in isolated rat aorta. METHODS AND RESULTS CX3CR1 expression was demonstrated in rat aortic endothelial and smooth muscle cells by immun...