background patients with severe refractory cardiac angina who are not candidates for any form of invasive treatment and are already on optimal medical therapy have few therapeutic options. enhanced external counter pulsation (eecp) offers an alternative palliative and possibly therapeutic option for these patients. eecp achieves this by inducing hemodynamic effects much similar to those of the ...

Coronary computed tomographic angiography allows direct evaluation of the vessel wall and thus positive remodeling, which is a marker of vulnerability. The purpose of this study was to assess the association between positive remodeling on computed tomography angiogram (CTA) and vulnerable plaque characteristics on virtual histologic intravascular ultrasound (VH IVUS) images. Forty-five patients...

BACKGROUND We compared the effect of arterial remodeling on intimal hyperplasia (IH) after the implantation of a sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) and a paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES). METHODS The study population consisted of patients with positive or intermediate remodeling and negative remodeling. RESULTS Sixty-nine patients had positive or intermediate remodeling and 107 patients had negati...

BACKGROUND In vivo studies with intravascular ultrasound have shown that complex plaque anatomy and plaque rupture are more frequent in the presence of marked outward remodeling. A large lipid core and a high macrophage count are recognized histological markers for plaque vulnerability. The link between plaque vulnerability in terms of these markers and remodeling in coronary arteries has not b...

Background: Endometrial remodeling occurs during each menstrual cycle in women. Reports have shown that, in a variety of cell types, processes such as proliferation, signaling complex formation and extra cellular matrix remodeling require a cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase, focal adhesion kinase (FAK). The present study has focused on the expression pattern of FAK in human endometrium during the men...

Atherosclerosis often leads to myocardial infarction and stroke. We examined the influence of baseline plaque characteristics on subsequent vascular remodeling in response to changes in plaque size. Using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), we examined 213 plaques from 138 patients with acute coronary syndrome at baseline and repeated IVUS at the 12-month fol...

BACKGROUND There are few studies that investigated the correlation between insulin resistance (IR) and the coronary artery remodeling. The aim of the study is to investigate the association of IR measured by homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and coronary artery remodeling evaluated by intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). METHODS A total of 298 consecutive patients who r...

BACKGROUND This study used serial volumetric intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) to evaluate the effect of preinterventional arterial remodeling on in-stent intimal hyperplasia (IH) after implantation of non-polymer-encapsulated paclitaxel-coated stents. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients were randomized to placebo or one of two doses of paclitaxel (low dose, 1.28 microg/mm2; high dose, 3.10 microg/mm2...

Chronic increases in arterial blood flow elicit an adaptive response of the arterial wall, leading to vessel enlargement and reduction in wall shear stress to physiological baseline value. Release of nitric oxide from endothelial cells exposed to excessive shear is a fundamental step in the remodeling process, and potentially triggers a cascade of events, including growth factor induction and m...

BACKGROUND The morphological characteristics of coronary plaques in patients with stable versus unstable coronary syndromes have been described in vivo with intravascular ultrasound, but the relationship between arterial remodeling and clinical presentation is not well known. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 85 patients with unstable and 46 patients with stable coronary syndromes using intravas...