Increasing experimental evidence has demonstrated that sphingolipids are likely to have an important regulatory function in the cardiovascular system. Two sphingolipids released from activated platelets, and therefore of particular relevance, are S1P (sphingosine 1-phosphate) and SPC (sphingosylphosphocholine). Both S1P and SPC can act as vasoconstrictors and may modulate VSMC (vascular smooth ...

It has been suggested that obstetric epidurals lead to chronic adhesive arachnoiditis (CAA). CAA is a nebulous disease entity with much confusion over its symptomatology. This review outlines the pathological, clinical, and radiological features of the disease. The proposed diagnostic criteria for CAA are: back pain that increases on exertion, with or without leg pain; neurological abnormality ...

Hypertension is a well-recognized complication of excess glucocorticoids, both naturally-occurring and synthetic. Dexamethasone is a potent synthetic glucocorticoid, which has widespread clinical applications. As dexamethasone has purely glucocorticoid activity with negligible mineralocorticoid effects, dexamethasone-induced hypertension (DEXHT) models have been used for studying the mechanisms...

Nasotracheal intubation offers the head and neck surgeon more scope for surgical manoeuvre in operations of the mouth, pharynx, larynx and also the neck. Concern over the complications of using this route of intubation and lack of training may be limiting its use. A thorough knowledge of the anatomy, benefits of using nasal vasoconstrictors and attention to technique are prerequisites to mainta...

Hepatorenal syndrome is a condition associated with very high mortality that may be reverted in some cases with vasoconstrictors. Terlipressin has generally been considered standard treatment, but noradrenaline has been postulated as alternative. Searching in Epistemonikos database, which is maintained by screening 30 databases, we identified six systematic reviews including four pertinent rand...

PULMONARY ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION (PAH) is a rare human disease displaying a very poor prognosis of survival. The chronic increase in pulmonary vascular resistance associated with PAH eventually leads to right ventricular hypertrophy and failure, and ultimately death. It is well accepted that the increase in pulmonary arterial resistance to blood flow in PAH primarily involves a partial or comple...

Vasoconstrictors such as arginine vasopressin (AVP) and angiotensin II (Ang II) have been shown to increase protein and mRNA levels of smooth muscle a-actin (SM-a-actin) in vascular smooth muscle cells. In the same cells, platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) decreased SM-aactin protein and mRNA. The rat SM-a-actin promoter that has recently been isolated contains two E-boxes and three CC(A/T)6...