BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common supraventricular arrhythmia. ECG-gated MDCT seems to be currently a method of choice for pre-ablation anatomical mapping due to an excellent resolution and truly isotropic three-dimensional nature. The aim of this study was to establish the between-subject variability and inter-observer reproducibility of anatomical evaluation of the pulmonary vei...

The endothelium regulates vascular tone through release of relaxing or contracting factors, with nitric oxide (NO) being a major endothelium-derived relaxing factor. In the present study, we used a lung explant technique to determine the differential abilities and mechanisms of pulmonary arteries and veins of normal guinea pigs to relax after precontraction. Excised lungs of 15 guinea pigs were...

A 51-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital because of shortness of breath. Her mean pulmonary artery pressure was 52 mm Hg, and idiopathic pulmonary artery hypertension was diagnosed. She received beraprost sodium, imidapril, warfarin, and home-based oxygen therapy. At 67 years of age, dyspnea on effort worsened to New York Heart Association functional class III. The plasma level of brain...

Deep venous thrombosis or DVT is a blood clot formation in one or more of the deep veins. The blood clot does not break down and therefore, it can become larger and occlude the blood flow within the affected vein. The most frequent sites are the leg veins (femoral and popliteal) and the deep pelvic veins. Rarely, the arm veins are affected (Paget-Schrötter disease). Pulmonary embolism (PE) is t...

Anomalies of the pulmonary venous return are uncommon, particularly malformations with total drainage of the pulmonary veins directly into the right atrium. Brody (1942) reviewed the literature on anomalous pulmonary venous drainage, dealing with 106 cases, including four personal ones. Further necropsy reports have since been presented by Vass and Mack (1949) and Smith (1951), the latter also ...

Chronic hypoxia causes remodeling and alters contractile responses in both pulmonary arteries and pulmonary veins. Although pulmonary arteries have been studied extensively in these disorders, the mechanisms by which pulmonary veins respond to hypoxia and whether these responses contribute to chronic hypoxic pulmonary hypertension remain poorly understood. In pulmonary arterial smooth muscle, w...

Major congenital defects of the hepatic veins are readily detectable at autopsy but they have been described rarely. In the case reported here an anomalous disposition of these veins brought venous blood from the left half of the liver into the left atrium and blood from the right half of the liver into the right atrium. We have traced only two other similar cases (Arnold, 1868; Epstein, 1886)....