Background—Cardiac troponins in blood are the most preferred markers of myocardial damage. The fact that they are normally not found in the circulation provides a high level of clinical sensitivity and specificity even when cardiac lesions are small. After myocardial injury, the troponins enter the circulation, where they can be used for diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes. Thus, the cardiac ...

BACKGROUND Cardiac troponins in blood are the most preferred markers of myocardial damage. The fact that they are normally not found in the circulation provides a high level of clinical sensitivity and specificity even when cardiac lesions are small. After myocardial injury, the troponins enter the circulation, where they can be used for diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes. Thus, the cardiac ...

BACKGROUND Asymptomatic ventricular arrhythmias are common and associated with increased risk of cardiovascular mortality. Cardiac troponins, natriuretic peptides and C-reactive protein (CRP) are also predictive of adverse cardiovascular events in the general population, but limited information is available on the relationship between these biomarkers and ventricular ectopy in a community-based...

BACKGROUND In patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), troponin I (TnI), C-reactive protein (CRP), and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) each predict adverse cardiac events. Little is known, however, about the utility of these biomarkers in combination. METHODS AND RESULTS Baseline measurements of TnI, CRP, and BNP were performed in 450 patients in OPUS-TIMI 16. Elevations in TnI, CRP, an...

The indirect flight muscles (IFM) of Drosophila melanogaster provide a good genetic system with which to investigate muscle function. Flight muscle contraction is regulated by both stretch and Ca(2+)-induced thin filament (actin + tropomyosin + troponin complex) activation. Some mutants in troponin-I (TnI) and troponin-T (TnT) genes cause a "hypercontraction" muscle phenotype, suggesting that t...

BACKGROUND Lidocaine has been demonstrated to exert cardioprotective effects against myocardial ischaemia and reperfusion injury. We evaluated whether a continuous i.v. infusion of lidocaine reduced myocardial injury in patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery (OPCAB). METHODS In this randomized, double-blinded trial, 99 patients received i.v. lidocaine 2% (i.e. a 1.5...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the cardiotoxicity of LV5FU2 regimen (bolus plus infusional 5-fluorouracil/folinic acid) treatment by non-invasive methods such as echocardiography, plasma troponin I (TnI) level, QT interval and QT dispersion on ECG. METHODS Twenty-two patients with gastrointestinal cancer who received LV5FU2 chemotherapy were evaluated prospectively during 12 cycles of chemotherapy. Pl...

Contraction in the mammalian heart is controlled by the intracellular Ca(2+) concentration as it is in all striated muscle, but the heart has an additional signaling system that comes into play to increase heart rate and cardiac output during exercise or stress. β-adrenergic stimulation of heart muscle cells leads to release of cyclic-AMP and the activation of protein kinase A which phosphoryla...

Bundles of cells from rat right ventricular myocardium were made "hyperpermeable" by an overnight soak in 10 mM EGTA (McClellan and Winegrad. 1978. J. Gen. Physiol. 72:737-764). In this preparation the cytoplasmic concentration of Ca++ and ATP could be controlled while sarcolemmal receptors and enzymes were retained. The Ca sensitivity of the tissues (as indicated by the pCa for 50% maximum act...