BACKGROUND Epidemiologic analysis of family data on blood pressure (BP) is often compromised by the effects of antihypertensive medications. A review of numerous clinical trials that investigated the effects of BP-lowering medications is summarized here. METHODS Published clinical trials, including 137 clinical trials with monodrug therapies and 28 clinical trials of combination drug therapie...

Background: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to assess the most effective treatment (long-term administration of calcium channel blockers [CCBs] with without any form long-acting nitrates [nitrates]) for reducing incidence major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) in patients vasospastic angina (VSA).

Recently published actively controlled outcome trials in hypertension compared conventional therapy (diuretics and beta-blockers) with newer antihypertensive drug classes, including angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, alpha-blockers, and angiotensin II antagonists. In a quantitative overview of nine trials including 62,605 randomized patients, it was found that c...

PURPOSE Trauma dogma dictates that the physiologic response to injury is blunted by beta-blockers and other cardiac medications. We sought to determine how the pre-injury cardiac medication profile influences admission physiology and post-injury outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS Trauma patients older than 45 evaluated at our center were retrospectively studied. Pre-injury medication profiles we...

PURPOSE To explore the role of calcium in morphine withdrawal syndrome using various agents affecting calcium levels in cytoplasm. METHODS Mice were rendered dependent on morphine by subcutaneous injection of morphine, and withdrawal was induced 4 hours later by injecting the opioid antagonist, naloxone. Mice were observed for 30 minutes for signs of withdrawal, ie, characteristic jumping, hy...

objective(s): the structure- activity relationship of a series of 36 molecules, showing l-type calcium channel blocking was studied using a qsar (quantitative structure–activity relationship) method. materials and methods: structures were optimized by the semi-empirical am1 quantum-chemical method which was also used to find structure-calcium channel blocking activity trends. several types of d...

Red light (R) stimulates an increase in the total concentration of intracellular calcium in the spores of Onoclea sensibilis L. as determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Subsequent exposure to far-red light inhibits the R-induced increase in intracellular calcium. The majority of the increase occurs 5 minutes after the onset of irradiation. The calcium antagonist, La(3+), inhibits both g...

Forced expression of gap junction proteins, connexins, enables gap junction-deficient cell lines to propagate intercellular calcium waves. Here, we show that ATP secretion from the poorly coupled cell lines, C6 glioma, HeLa, and U373 glioblastoma, is potentiated 5- to 15-fold by connexin expression. ATP release required purinergic receptor-activated intracellular Ca2+ mobilization and was inhib...