BACKGROUND Several clinical studies have demonstrated that levels of adiponectin are significantly reduced in patients with type 2 diabetes and that adiponectin levels are inversely related to the risk of myocardial ischemia. The present study was designed to determine the mechanism by which adiponectin exerts its protective effects against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion. METHODS AND RESULTS...

We have used Affymetrix gene chip technology to look for changes in gene expression caused by a 24 h exposure of rat primary neonatal cardiac myocytes to the cardioprotective agent urocortin. We observed a 2.5-fold down-regulation at both the mRNA and protein levels of a specific calcium-insensitive phospholipase A2 enzyme. Levels of lysophosphatidylcholine, a toxic metabolite of phospholipase ...

Global hypoxia-ischemia interrupts oxygen delivery and blood flow to the entire brain. Previous studies of global brain hypoxia-ischemia have primarily focused on injury to the cerebral cortex and to the hippocampus. Susceptible neuronal populations also include inhibitory neurons in the thalamic reticular nucleus. We therefore investigated the impact of global brain hypoxia-ischemia on the tha...

The response to myocardial ischemia is complex and involves the cardio-cardiac sympathetic reflex. Specifically, cardiac spinal (sympathetic) afferents are excited by ischemic metabolites and elicit an excitatory sympathetic reflex, which plays a major role in the genesis of ventricular arrhythmias. For example, brief myocardial ischemia leads to ATP release, which activates cardiac spinal affe...

The heart is extensively innervated and its performance is tightly controlled by the nervous system. Cardiac innervation density varies in diseased hearts leading to unbalanced neural activation and lethal arrhythmia. Diabetic sensory neuropathy causes silent myocardial ischemia, characterized by loss of pain perception during myocardial ischemia, which is a major cause of sudden cardiac death ...

Damage to cardiac contractile proteins during ischemia followed by reperfusion is mediated by reactive oxygen species such as peroxynitrite (ONOO(-)), resulting in impairment of cardiac systolic function. However, the pathophysiology of systolic dysfunction during ischemia only, before reperfusion, remains unclear. We suggest that increased ONOO(-) generation during ischemia leads to nitration/...

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is predicted to be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries by the year 2020[1,2]. Approximately 30% patients presenting at emergency department with chest pain actually develop acute myocardial infarction (AMI)[3]. Cardiac ischemia is the most common mechanism underlying acute coronary syndrome (ACS) that when prolonged, may lead to myo...

Background There is evidence that myocardial ischemia in patients with diabetes mellitus is often present without the exhibition of symptoms. Moreover, recent data suggests that silent ischemia is associated with occurrence of cardiac events and poor outcome. Aim of our study was to determine the prognostic value of a reversible perfusion deficit assessed by adenosine perfusion cardiac magnetic...

Minimizing myocardial ischemia-reperfusion injury has broad clinical implications and is a critical mediator of cardiac surgical outcomes. "Ischemic injury" results from a restriction in blood supply leading to a mismatch between oxygen supply and demand of a sufficient intensity and/or duration that leads to cell necrosis, whereas ischemia-reperfusion injury occurs when blood supply is restore...

Rituximab has improved the treatment of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas. While it is generally well tolerated, serious adverse effects including infusion reactions with hemodynamic compromise and cardiac arrhythmias or ischemia are possible. We report a case of coronary vasospasm occurring during a rituximab infusion in a patient with minimal tumour burden and who had no cardiac risk factors. This...