The renin-angiotensin system regulates the vascular fibrinolytic balance. In the human forearm vasculature, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors (ACE-Is) increase the release of t-PA through endogenous bradykinin. We tested the hypothesis that ACE inhibition and sex modulate the endogenous coronary release of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) in hypertensive patients. Seventy-three ...

Sinus of Valsalva aneurysm accounts for only 1% of congenital cardiac anomalies. Sinus of Valsalva aneurysm can cause aortic insufficiency, coronary artery flow compromise, cardiac arrhythmia, or aneurysm rupture. A 44year-old male presented with a 3-month history of palpitation and exertional dyspnea. Cardiac auscultation revealed a grade III/VI ‘‘to and fro’’ murmur along the left sternal bor...

We studied carotid baroreceptor reflex coronary vasoconstriction in closed-chest dogs with controlled aortic blood pressure and myocardial oxygen metabloism. The dogs were anesthetized with morphine and chloralose. Left coronary blood flow was measured by a cannula-tip flowmeter, and myocardial oxygen metabolism was calculated by measuring the arterial-coronary sinus oxygen difference. A bilate...

BACKGROUND Gender-specific differences in cardiovascular risk are well known, and current evidence supports an existing role of endothelium in these differences. The purpose of this study was to assess non invasively coronary endothelial function in male and female young volunteers by myocardial blood flow (MBF) measurement using coronary sinus (CS) flow quantification by velocity encoded cine ...

An anomalous right coronary artery arising from the left sinus of Valsalva is a rare but potentially lethal abnormality. We present a case report and literature review of this anomaly as well as its surgical management in the face of unobstructed distal coronary arteries. Furthermore we report the use of intraoperative transesophageal stress echocardiography to evaluate adequacy of graft flow.

• The Kety-Schmidt method for measurement of regional blood flow was first applied to the heart by Eckenhoff et al. These investigators employed coronary sinus catheterization to measure myocardial blood flow with nitrous oxide. The use of a radioactive gas and an external detector for the measurement of organ blood flow was investigated by Conn, Lewis et al., and Lassen et al. The radioactive ...

AVAILABLE data concerning coronary flow in intact human subjects have indicated that there is a strong tendency for the blood flow per unit weight of myocardium to fall in the usual range under a wide variety of circumstances and for the coronary vessels to be capable of adapting themselves to most situations sufficiently well to maintain usual coronary flow as long as myocardial metabolism is ...

We examined the late coronary vascular response to carotid chemoreceptor reflex activation in normal, conscious dogs instrumented for the measurement of right main and left circumflex coronary artery blood flows, arterial and right ventricular pressures, and arterial and coronary sinus blood gases and O2 contents. With heart rate held constant by electrical stimulation, and with respiration con...

Background Recent studies demonstrated that Rb PET-derived myocardial perfusion reserve has a significant prognostic impact on the prediction of cardiac events in patients assessed for myocardial ischemia. Regional myocardial ischemia and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) defined by cardiac MR imaging are also reported as significant prognosticators for future cardiac events. However, the progn...

Pressure controlled intermittent coronary sinus occlusion (PICSO) has been found to substantially salvage ischemic myocardium. By elevating venous pressure two mechanisms are involved namely the distention of venous vessels inducing mechanotransduction as well as a redistribution of venous flow towards ischemic areas. Mechanotransduction in endothelial cells inducing changes in the ischemic hea...