1013 Despite intensive study over the past few years, several aspects of the renin-angiotensin system remain poorly understood. Such is the case for the angiotensin II type 2 receptor (AT2), one of the two receptor subtypes that mediate the actions of angiotensin II. In fetal tissues, this receptor is expressed at high levels and appears to have a role in growth, differentiation, and maturation...

Editorial Dual chamber pacing for hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy: Has its time come? Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a fascinating and controversial disease,' 2 iS characterised by massive hypertrophy of the myocardium and is associated with various presentations ranging from complete absence of symptoms to sudden, unexpected death. There is a subgroup of patients who present with severe ...

he influence of the sympathetic nervous system on both normal physiology and pathophysiology of the heart extends beyond the beat-to-beat regulation of rate and con-tractile force arising from acute exposure to neurally released norepinephrine (NE). For example, postinfarction arrhythmias have been ascribed to nerve sprouting and excess sympathetic innervation (7). In addition, congenital arrhy...

Letters to the Editor will be published, if suitable, as space permits. They should not exceed 1000 words (typed double-spaced) in length and may be subject to editing or abridgment. Left ventricular mass (LVM) is an indicator of cardiovascular status, integrating multiple adverse pathophysiologic influences and a potent, independent predictor of prognosis, making definition of optimal methods ...

Keywords: Friedreich's ataxia Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy Interferon gamma Frataxin Freidreich's ataxia (FRDA) is an autosomal recessive hereditary disease with a prevalence of about 1 in 30,000, characterized by progressive neurologic impairment [1]. In addition, almost all patients have abnormal echocardiograms and more than 50% develop hypertro-phic cardiomyopathy [2]. Survival in FRDA is de...

Heart failure (HF) is a complex clinical syndrome resulting from impaired diastolic and/or systolic function and clinically manifested by numerous, rather unspecific symptoms such as dyspnoea (at rest or exertion), orthopnoea, wheezing, chronic fatigue and lower extremity oedema. The prevalence of HF increases steeply with age, causing high mortality and morbidity , substantial loss in quality ...

Abnormal Enhancement of the Left Putamen on Brain MRI in a Case of Proven Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Dr. Horng-Huei Liou, MD, Department of Neurology, National Taiwan University Hospital, No. 7 Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei 100 (Taiwan) Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is caused by unusual protein-aceous infectious particles, or prions [1]. Criteria for the clinically definite diagnosis of CJD in...

Objective(s):  The role of the Apoptosis repressor with caspase recruitment domain (ARC) in apoptosis and in certain hypertrophic responses has been previously investigated, but its regulation of Endothelin-1 induced cardiac hypertrophy remains unknown. The present study discusses the inhibitory role of ARC against endothelin–induced hypertrophy. Results:In present study Endothelin treated car...