OBJECTIVE The present study was performed to compare coronary flow reserve by transesophageal Doppler echocardiography and intracoronary Doppler flow wire measurements in patients with LAD disease. METHODS 17 patients with various degree of LAD stenosis were studied. Intracoronary LAD Doppler measurements were performed at baseline and after intracoronary injection of 18 micrograms adenosine....

Conventional two-dimensional intracoronary ultrasound enables the extent, distribution, and therapy of atherosclerotic plaques to be studied as it provides a unique tomographic visualization of both the vascular lumen and wall'". The most important limitation of two-dimensional intracoronary ultrasound in pre/poststudies is the matching of the target sites for serial measurement. This problem i...

To enhance detection of ischemia during percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), unipolar intracoronary electrocardiograms (ECGs) were recorded during PTCA in 25 patients from the tips of guidewires positioned distal to stenoses being dilated. Surface electrocardiographic leads chosen to reflect likely areas of reversible ischemia during PTCA were recorded simultaneously. In 21 of...

BACKGROUND In an open-label blinded study, we compared intracoronary and transendocardial CD34(+) cell transplantation in patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy. METHODS AND RESULTS Of the 40 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, 20 were randomized to receive intracoronary injection and 20 received transendocardial CD34(+) cell delivery. In both groups, CD34(+) cells were mobilized ...

beta-Adrenergic hyporesponsiveness in congestive heart failure (CHF) is mediated, in part, by nitric oxide (NO). NO and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) share cGMP as a second messenger. Left ventricular (LV) function and inotropic response to intravenous dobutamine (Dob) were assessed during sequential intracoronary infusion of saline, HS-142-1 (a BNP receptor antagonist), and HS-142-1 + N(G)-m...

BACKGROUND In patients with acute myocardial infarction or unstable angina undergoing coronary angioplasty, abciximab reduces major adverse cardiac events (MACE). Clinical trials have studied intravenous administration only. Intracoronary bolus application of abciximab causes very high local drug concentrations and may be more effective. We studied whether intracoronary bolus administration of ...

Intravascular Ultrasound(IVUS) is an imaging technology which provides cross-sectional images of internal coronary vessel structures. The IVUS frames are acquired by pulling the catheter back with a motor running at a constant speed. However, during the pullback, some artifacts occur due to the beating heart. These artifacts cause inaccurate measurements for total vessel and lumen volume and li...