Search

Low sodium levels are strongly associated with poor prognosis in acute heart failure (AHF); however, the prognostic impact of the sodium level trajectory overtime has not been determined. A secondary analysis of the AQUAMARINE study in which patients with AHF and renal impairment were randomized to receive either tolvaptan or conventional treatment was performed. Sodium levels were evaluated at the baseline and at 6, 12, 24, and 48 h. We defined 'sodium dipping' as sodium level falling below the baseline level at any time point. The primary endpoint was the combined event of all-cause death and heart failure rehospitalization during follow-up. The analysis included 184 patients with a median follow-up of 21.1 months. Sodium levels more steeply increased during the 48 h in patients without events as compared to sodium levels in patients with events (P = 0.018 in linear-mixed effect model). The sodium dipping group (n = 100; 54.3%) demonstrated significantly less urine output, less body weight reduction, and poorer diuretic response within 48 h compared to the non-dipping group. The sodium dipping group was also significantly associated with a low combined-event-free survival after adjustment for other prognostic factors (HR 1.97; 95% CI 1.06-3.38; P = 0.033). The trajectory of sodium levels during the acute phase is associated with the prognosis of patients with AHF independently of the baseline sodium level.

Recently, incretin-related agents have been reported to attenuate insulin resistance in animal models, although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we investigated whether anagliptin, the dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) inhibitor, attenuates skeletal muscle insulin resistance through endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activation in the endothelial cells. We used endothelium-specific Irs2-knockout (ETIrs2KO) mice, which show skeletal muscle insulin resistance resulting from a reduction of insulin-induced skeletal muscle capillary recruitment as a consequence of impaired eNOS activation.In vivo, 8-week-old male ETIrs2KO mice were fed regular chow with or without 0.3% (wt/wt) DPP-4 inhibitor for 8 weeks to assess capillary recruitment and glucose uptake by the skeletal muscle. In vitro, human coronary arterial endothelial cells (HCAECs) were used to explore the effect of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) on eNOS activity.Treatment with anagliptin ameliorated the impaired insulin-induced increase in capillary blood volume, interstitial insulin concentration and skeletal muscle glucose uptake in ETIrs2KO mice. This improvement in insulin-induced glucose uptake was almost completely abrogated by the GLP-1 receptor (GLP-1R) antagonist exendin-(9-39). Moreover, the increase in capillary blood volume with anagliptin treatment was also completely inhibited by the NOS inhibitor. GLP-1 augmented eNOS phosphorylation in HCAECs, with the effect completely disappearing after exposure to the protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor H89. These data suggest that anagliptin treatment enhances insulin-induced capillary recruitment and interstitial insulin concentrations, resulting in improved skeletal muscle glucose uptake by directly acting on the endothelial cells via NO- and GLP-1-dependent mechanisms in vivo.Anagliptin may be a promising agent to ameliorate skeletal muscle insulin resistance in obese patients with type 2 diabetes.

Chronic total occlusion (CTO) lesions are a challenging issue. When dealing with complex CTO lesions in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), it is important to evaluate not only the CTO lesion itself but also atherosclerotic lesions of the whole coronary artery tree. The utility of the SYNTAX (Synergy Between Percutaneous Coronary Intervention with Taxus and Cardiac Surgery Trial) score in patients with CTO undergoing PCI is unclear.This retrospective study included 304 consecutive patients with CTO lesions who underwent PCI. Primary endpoints were procedural failure and major adverse cardiac events (MACE) within 30 days. The SYNTAX and J-CTO (Multicenter CTO Registry in Japan) scores were assessed before the procedures, and patients were divided into two groups according to SYNTAX criteria: high ( 22; n = 158) and low (≤ 22; n = 146) SYNTAX scores.Procedural success was achieved in 252 patients (82.9 %). Patients with a high SYNTAX score had significantly lower procedural success than those with a low SYNTAX score (74.7 % versus 91.8 %, p 0.0001). There were 13 MACE (8.2 %) in patients with high SYNTAX scores and two MACE (1.4 %) in those with low scores. The SYNTAX and J-CTO scores had odds ratios of 3.33 (95 %CI, 1.44-7.74) and 3.64 (95 %CI, 1.24-10.66) for procedural failure. A higher SYNTAX score ( 22) was also an independent predictor of 30-day MACE after PCI (odds ratio = 4.80, 95 %Cl 1.03-22.42).The SYNTAX score is predictive of procedural failure, as is the J-CTO score. Furthermore, a higher SYNTAX score is strongly associated with an increased risk of 30-day MACE. The SYNTAX score is useful for clinical decision making when treating patients with complex CTO lesions.

A 76-year-old male who had already been diagnosed with ischemic heart disease and severe aortic stenosis was transferred to our hospital in a state of cardiogenic shock. We finally diagnosed him with severe aortic stenosis. We decided to perform emergency balloon aortic valvuloplasty (BAV) as a bridge treatment to surgical repair. We first performed BAV with a double balloon technique, and next with a triple balloon technique. As a result, the blood pressure recovered, and surgical aortic valve repair could thus be successfully performed.

Pioglitazone (PIO) is widely used as an insulin-sensitizing agent in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, but it also causes an increase in body weight in a dose-dependent manner. Beraprost sodium (BPS), a stable prostaglandin I2 analog, is used clinically for the treatment of peripheral arterial disease and primary pulmonary hypertension. BPS has recently been demonstrated to promote insulin-induced glucose uptake by skeletal muscle. In this study, we examined whether low-dose PIO (PIO-L; 3 mg/kg/day) plus BPS treatment might exert antidiabetic effects without causing body weight gain in obese/diabetic KKAy mice. Treatment with PIO-L plus BPS tended to improve the hepatic insulin resistance and significantly improved the skeletal muscle insulin resistance, yielding a similar degree of hyperglycemia improvement to that obtained with high-dose PIO (PIO-H; 30 mg/kg/day) treatment. Moreover, the increase in body weight observed following PIO-H treatment was not observed following PIO-L plus BPS treatment. An increase in plasma adiponectin levels, which have been shown to be negatively correlated with hepatic glucose production, but not with the glucose disappearance rate during hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp, was observed in the animals treated with PIO-L, PIO-L plus BPS, and PIO-H. This suggests that the improvement in hepatic insulin resistance was associated, at least in part, with an increase in the plasma adiponectin levels observed during PIO treatment. In contrast, treatment with BPS, which failed to increase the plasma adiponectin levels, ameliorated skeletal, but not hepatic insulin resistance. PIO-L plus BPS treatment may represent efficacious treatment for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes without causing body weight gain.

The prognostic and diagnostic values of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) in ischemic heart disease have already been investigated in many previous studies. Although NT-pro-BNP is affected by many factors, these previous studies did not strictly exclude them. This study included 110 patients who received coronary arteriography between November 2007 and September 2009. Excluded from the study were those patients who had clinical symptoms of heart failure, asynergy by echocardiography or left ventriculography (LVG), atrial fibrillation, prior myocardial infarction, valvular disease, lung disease, anemia or renal dysfunction. We compared the laboratory data, LVG and early transmitral-to-early diastolic annular velocity ratio (E/E (a)) in echocardiography between the group with coronary stenosis and the group without it. NT-pro-BNP and the low-density lipoprotein/high-density lipoprotein ratio (LDL/HDL) independently associated with the presence of coronary artery stenosis (odds ratio of NT-pro-BNP, each 50 pg/ml 2.367, 95% confidence interval 1.302-4.303, p = 0.005). The area under the curve of the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve of NT-pro-BNP, used to predict coronary artery stenosis, was 0.801 (0.719-0.883, p 0.001). According to the ROC curve, the optimal cut-off level for predicting coronary stenosis was 64.3 pg/ml (sensitivity 82.5%, false-positive 34%). NT-pro-BNP is an attractive supplemental marker to predict the presence of coronary artery stenosis in a population that strictly excluded any affecting factors. In the population without factors affecting NT-pro-BNP, a slight increase suggests the presence of ischemic heart disease. The normal criteria for NT-pro-BNP in the patients undergoing coronary angiography may be much lower than the one currently used.

The purpose of this study is to determine the normative Doppler values and gender differences in left ventricular (LV) diastolic function in healthy subjects at each decade of life. Four hundred sixty-seven male and 455 female healthy subjects, aged 20–90 years, underwent standard echocardiography and tissue Doppler imaging. We divided the subjects into seven groups, based on the decade of their age (i.e., 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s), and measured standard echocardiographic parameters and Doppler indices. Females younger than 50 years had significantly higher mitral E velocity, and females older than 40 years had significantly higher mitral A velocity, compared with their male counterparts. There was no difference in mitral E to A velocity ratio (E/A) at any age. The tissue Doppler method showed significantly lower early diastole velocity of the mitral annulus (E a) in females—especially females older than 50 years—than in males (10.7 ± 3.7 versus 11.2 ± 3.7 cm/s, p

Background Although high-molecular-weight (HMW) adiponectin is believed to protect against atherosclerosis, the association between HMW adiponectin and the composition of coronary plaques is unknown. We evaluated whether the HMW to total adiponectin ratio was associated with the presence of coronary plaque and its composition using multi-slice computed tomography coronary angiography (MSCTCA). Methods Serum total and HMW adiponectin levels were measured in 53 consecutive patients (age, 71) with >50% coronary artery stenosis detected by MSCTCA. A low-attenuation coronary plaque was defined as a plaque with a mean CT density Results Decreased serum levels of total as well as HMW adiponectin were significantly associated with the presence of at least one calcified or non-calcified coronary artery plaque (total adiponectin level: odds ratio 0.76, 95% CI 0.58–0.99, P = 0.048; HMW adiponectin level: odds ratio 0.65, 95% CI 0.42–0.99, P = 0.047). A low ratio of HMW to total adiponectin was significantly associated with the presence of low-attenuation coronary plaques (4.55, 1.94–21.90, P = 0.049). However, neither the total adiponectin nor the HMW adiponectin level was associated with the presence of low-attenuation coronary plaques. Conclusion Lower total or HMW adiponectin levels are associated with the presence of calcified and non-calcified coronary plaques, whereas a lower ratio of HMW to total adiponectin associated with the presence of low-attenuation coronary plaques (thought to be high risk). Measurement of total and HMW adiponectin levels and the HMW to total adiponectin ratio may be useful for risk stratification of coronary artery plaques.

Background In patients with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), LV midwall fractional shortening (FS) is used as a measure of LV systolic performance that is more physiologically appropriate than conventional FS. For evaluation of LV volume and ejection fraction (EF), 2-dimensional (2D) echocardiography is more accurate than M-mode echocardiography. The purpose of this study was to assess systolic performance by midwall EF using 2D speckle tracking echocardiography (STE). Methods Sixty patients were enrolled in the study. Patients were divided into two groups with LVH (n = 30) and without LVH (control group, n = 30). LV systolic function was compared between the two groups and the relationships of left ventricular mass index (LVMI) with LV systolic parameters, including midwall EF, were investigated. Results Midwall EF in the LVH group was significantly lower than that in the control group (42.8±4.4% vs. 48.1±4.1%, p Conclusions These results show that midwall EF can be determined using 2D STE. Midwall EF can be used to monitor LV systolic dysfunction, which is not possible with conventional EF. Evaluation of midwall EF may allow assessment of new parameters of LV systolic function in patients with LV geometric variability.

We describe a case of a 60-year-old man with effort-induced angina pectoris. Coronary angiography showed an aneurysm in the proximal left anterior descending coronary artery. It was unclear whether it was a coronary artery aneurysm or a coronary fistula with an associated aneurysm. Three-dimensional reconstruction images from 16-slice multidetector row computed tomographic (MDCT) angiography showed an aneurysm that drained into the pulmonary artery. Images from 16-slice MDCT coronary angiography can be helpful in understanding complex coronary artery anatomy.