Search results for "Cardiac"

Preclinical atherosclerosis and metabolic syndrome increase cardio- and cerebrovascular events rate: a 20-year follow up

2013

BACKGROUND: Intima-media thickness (IMT) is a validated marker of preclinical atherosclerosis and a predictor of cardiovascular events. PATIENTS: We studied a population of 529 asymptomatic patients (age 62 ± 12.8 years), divided into two groups of subjects with and without Metabolic Syndrome (MetS). METHODS: All patients, at baseline, have had a carotid ultrasound evaluation and classified in two subgroups: the first one without atherosclerotic lesions and the second one with preclinical atherosclerosis (increased IMT or asymptomatic carotid plaque). Cardiovascular endpoints were investigated in a 20-years follow-up. RESULTS: There were 242 cardiovascular events: 144 among patients with Me…

Integrated non-invasive approach to atherosclerosis with cardiac CT and carotid ultrasound in patients with suspected coronary artery disease

2017

The aim of the study was to compare the atherosclerotic disease in the coronary and carotid arteries in patients who underwent non-invasive imaging for suspected stable coronary artery disease (CAD). 107 patients (64 men, age 59 ± 12) with atypical chest pain underwent cardiac CT (CCT) and carotid ultrasound (US) on the same day. Severity (obstructive or not-obstructive disease), location, shape, and composition of atherosclerotic plaques in the two districts were evaluated. Patients presented normal coronary arteries in 36 % (n = 38), not-obstructive CAD in 36 % (n = 39), and obstructive CAD in 28 % (n = 30), while had normal carotid arteries in 53 % (n = 57), not-obstructive disease in 44…

Identification of new P-glycoprotein inhibitors derived from cardiotonic steroids

2014

P-glycoprotein (ABCB1, MDR1) is capable of extruding chemotherapeutics outside the cell and its overexpression in certain cancer cells may cause failure of chemotherapy. Many attempts were carried out to identify potent inhibitors of this transporter and numerous compounds were shown to exert inhibitory effects in vitro, but so far none were able to make their way to the clinic due to serious complications. Natural compounds represent a great source of therapeutics, which are believed to be safe and effective. Therefore, we have screened a large library of naturally occurring cardiotonic steroids and their derivatives using high throughput flow cytometry. We were able to identify six compou…

Fusion of bone-marrow-derived cells with Purkinje neurons, cardiomyocytes and hepatocytes

2003

Recent studies have suggested that bone marrow cells possess a broad differentiation potential, being able to form new liver cells, cardiomyocytes and neurons1,2. Several groups have attributed this apparent plasticity to ‘transdifferentiation’3,4,5. Others, however, have suggested that cell fusion could explain these results6,7,8,9. Using a simple method based on Cre/lox recombination to detect cell fusion events, we demonstrate that bone-marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) fuse spontaneously with neural progenitors in vitro. Furthermore, bone marrow transplantation demonstrates that BMDCs fuse in vivo with hepatocytes in liver, Purkinje neurons in the brain and cardiac muscle in the heart, resul…

Description of the response of a new multi-parametric brain sensor to physiological and pathophysiological challenges in the cortex of juvenile pigs

2014

AIM Monitoring of intracranial pressure (ICP), local cerebral blood flow (CBF) and oxygen is part of modern intensive critical care medicine. Preclinical evaluation of newly developed catheters that should monitor several parameters simultaneously is reported poorly in the literature. The goal of our study was (1) to evaluate a new multi-parametric sensor in brain tissue and (2) to establish a testing protocol using pathophysiological challenges that target measured parameters of the sensor and autoregulatory boundaries and could be used as preclinical standard protocol in future studies. MATERIAL AND METHODS We describe data from 12 new multi-parametric brain sensors (MPBS) that were impla…

[Diagnostic performance of surface electrocardiogram in early detection of chagasic cardiomyopathy].

2013

Contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) allows early detection of myocardial involvement by Trypanosoma cruzi infection. The aim of our study was to assess the diagnostic performance of the surface electrocardiogram (ECG) in the early detection of Chagas' cardiomyopathy (CCM) compared with CMR.We included 43 asymptomatic patients (30 women, 42 ± 9.8 years), diagnosed of Chagas disease. The sample was divided into 2 groups according to the presence (n=17) or absence (n=26) of electrocardiographic abnormalities. All patients underwent CMR and late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) was used as a marker of early myocardial involvement.Six (14%) patients had a LGE significantly hig…

A single bout of endurance exercise induces αB-crystallin (CRYAB) modulation in cardiac muscle as it happens in oxidative skeletal muscle fibers

2018

CRYAB is a small Heat Shock Protein, expressed in various tissues such as skeletal and cardiac muscles, activated as phosphorylated CRYAB (pCRYAB) and involved in several pathophysiological processes. In mammals there are no reports to date on CRYAB activation following an acute endurance exercise, so the aim of my study was to explore in mouse cardiac tissue the pCRYAB levels as effect of this exercise at 0’, 15’ and 120’ of recovery. H2O2 - treated HL-1 cardiomyocytes have been utilized as in vitro model to identify the underlying molecular mechanism/s. Both in vivo and in vitro models showed no changes in CRYAB protein expression level but its phosphorylation state was significantly incr…

Procoagulant activities of skeletal muscle and cardiac myosins require both myosin protein and myosin-associated anionic phospholipids

2021

Determination of stilbenes in Sicilian pistachio by high-performance liquid chromatographic diode array (HPLC-DAD/FLD) and evaluation of eventually m…

2008

In this work, we have investigated about the presence of several natural stilbenes in 12 samples of pistachios harvested from 10 different farms of Sicily (Bronte and Agrigento). At the same time, we have evaluated the relation between the stilbenes synthesis and the possible contamination of mycotoxin produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. We have found two types of stilbenes in the samples of pistachios examined: trans-resveratrol and trans-resveratrol-3-O-β-glucoside (trans-piceid). Their concentration ranged from 0.07 to 0.18 mg/kg (av. = 0.12 ± 0.03 mg/kg) for trans-resveratrol, from 6.20 to 8.15 mg/kg (av. = 6.97 ± 0.55 mg/kg) for trans-piceid and from 6.38 to 8.2…

3,4-trans-4-Aryl-3-(1-pyridinio)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyridine-6-thiolates—new group of potential cardiotonic drugs

2005

Abstract 3,4- trans -4-Aryl-3-(1-pyridinio)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyridine-6-thiolates 6 – 11 were prepared by a Michael reaction of N -acetonylpyridinium chloride with 3-aryl-2-cyanothioacrylamides or by a one-pot three-carbon condensation of N -acetonylpyridinium chloride, aromatic aldehyde and 2-cyanothioacetamide, and their cardiotonic properties were studied. 3,4- trans -5-cyano-2-hydroxy-2-methyl-4-(3-nitrophenyl)-3-(1-pyridinio)-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyridine-6-thiolate 8 was considered as a lead compound in this series since it in vitro experiments (spontaneously beating rat atria) showed a cardiotonic activity similar to that of milrinone 2 , however compound 8 induced activity at lover co…