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Yasushi Kono,1 Shota Fukuda,1 Kenei Shimada,2 Koki Nakanishi,2 Kenichiro Otsuka,2 Tomoichiro Kubo,1 Satoshi Jissho,1 Haruyuki Taguchi,1 Junichi Yoshikawa,3 Minoru Yoshiyama21Department of Medicine, Osaka Ekisaikai Hospital, Nishi-ku, Osaka, Japan; 2Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology, Osaka City University School of Medicine, Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan; 3Nishinomiya Watanabe Cardiovascular Center, Nishinomiya, JapanBackground: It has been reported that pitavastatin improves endothelial function faster than other statins. Recently introduced reactive hyperemia peripheral arterial tonometry (RH-PAT) provides objective and quantitative assessment of peripheral microvascular function.Purpose: This study aimed to investigate whether peripheral microvascular function improved 2 hours after pitavastatin in subjects with coronary artery disease (CAD) using RH-PAT, and the results were compared with those of rosuvastatin.Methods: This study included 94 subjects with CAD, assigned to a group given 2 mg of pitavastatin (n = 36), a group given 2.5 mg of rosuvastatin (n = 38), and a control group (n = 20). RH-PAT examinations were performed before and 2 hours after statin administration.Results: The RH-PAT index increased 2 hours after pitavastatin administration from 1.82 ± 0.45 to 2.16 ± 0.62 (P = 0.02), whereas there were no differences in the RH-PAT index in the rosuvastatin group (1.79 ± 0.71 to 1.91 ± 0.53, P = 0.09) and the control group (1.68 ± 0.36 to 1.84 ± 0.58, P = 0.4). No significant changes were observed at 2 hours in serum cholesterol levels in each group.Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that peripheral microvascular function improved 2 hours after a single clinical dose of pitavastatin, but not after rosuvastatin.Keywords: coronary artery disease, statin, microvascular function

Takeshi Takami,1 Hiroshi Ito,2 Katsuhisa Ishii,3 Kenei Shimada,4 Katsuomi Iwakura,5 Hiroyuki Watanabe,6 Shota Fukuda,7 Junichi Yoshikawa81Department of Internal Medicine, Clinic Jingumae, Kashihara, Japan; 2Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Okayama University, Graduate School of Medicine, Okayama, Japan; 3Department of Cardiology, Kansai Electric Power Hospital, Osaka, Japan; 4Department of Internal Medicine and Cardiology, Osaka City University of Medicine, Osaka, Japan; 5Cardiovascular Center, Sakurabashi Watanabe Hospital, Osaka, Japan; 6Department of Cardiology, Sakakibara Heart Institute, Tokyo, Japan; 7Department of Medicine, Osaka Ekisaikai Hospital, Osaka, Japan; 8Nishinomiya Watanabe Cardiovascular Center, Nishinomiya, JapanAbstract: The urinary albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR) is an independent predictor of outcomes in patients with diastolic dysfunction. Thus, we investigated the relationship between diastolic dysfunction, UACR, and diabetes mellitus (DM) in the EDEN study. We investigated the effect of switching from an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEi) or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) to a combination of losartan and hydrochlorothiazide on left ventricular (LV) relaxation in patients with hypertension and diastolic dysfunction. We enrolled 106 patients with and 265 patients without DM. All patients had diastolic dysfunction and had not achieved their treatment goals with an ACEi or ARB. The measurements of e′ velocity and E/e′ ratio was performed with echocardiography as markers of LV diastolic function. We switched the ACEi or ARB to losartan/hydrochlorothiazide and followed these patients for 24 weeks. UACR was decreased in patients with DM (123.4 ± 288.4 to 66.5 ± 169.2 mg/g creatinine; P = 0.0024), but not in patients without DM (51.2 ± 181.8 to 39.2 ± 247.9 mg/g creatinine; P = 0.1051). Among DM patients, there was a significant relationship between changes in UACR and changes in e′ velocity (r = –0.144; P = 0.0257) and between changes in estimated glomerular filtration rate and changes in the E/e′ ratio (r = –0.130; P = 0.0436). Among patients without DM, there was a significant relationship between changes in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and changes in E/e′ (r = 0.205; P = 0.0010). Multivariate analysis demonstrated changes in hemoglobin A1c levels as one of the determinants of change of e′ and E/e′ in patients with DM, whereas hs-CRP was the determinant of change of e′ among patients without DM. These data suggest that improvement in LV diastolic function is associated with an improvement of DM and a concomitant reduction in UACR among DM patients, and with a reduction of hs-CRP in patients without DM when thiazide is added to a renin–angiotensin blocker treatment regimen.Keywords: diastolic dysfunction, diabetes, urinary albumin to creatinine ratio, losartan, HCTZ

Abstract. It has been suggested that oxidative stress plays a pathogenic role in idiopathic interstitial pneumonias. Macrophage- or neutrophil-derived oxidants seem to be important sources of oxidative stress in this [...]