Early Diagnosis ; Humans ; Vascular Diseases ; diagnosis

Antihypertensive Agents ; therapeutic use ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Humans ; Hypertension ; drug therapy

Humans ; Hypertension ; therapy

Cardiovascular Diseases ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Renin ; antagonists & inhibitors

Blood Pressure ; Humans

Endoscopy ; instrumentation ; methods ; trends ; General Surgery ; methods ; Humans

Objective To establish the method of depict ing the left ventricular (LV) pressure-volume loop automatically by computer which incorporates LV catherization simultaneous with LV acoustic quantification echocardiography and to assess echocardiography non-invasive evaluation LV chamber stiffness. Methods Thirteen patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) underwent LV catherization simultaneously with echocardiography. LV pressure and volume curves were sent to computer, and LV pressure-volume loop was depicted automatically and modulus of LV chamber stiffness (Kc) was obtained. Pulsed Doppler echocardiography of mitral intraventricular flows was obtained in patients with HCM. Results Patients with HCM had significantly higher Kc obtained from LV pressure-volume loop ( 0.43 ? 0.11 vs 0.27 ). R-E 3/R-E 0, (R-E 2)-(R-E 1), (R-A 3)-(R-A 2) were correlated to Kc(r= 0.61 , 0.57 , 0.58 ,respectively). Conclusions This method provides a simple and reliable technique for automatically tracing pressure-volume loop and should facilitate further investigation of the left ventricular diastolic function in clinical practice. R-E 3/ R-E 0, (R-E 2)-(R-E 1), (R-A 3)-(R-A 2) offer new non-invasive indices in evaluating LV chamber stiffness.

Objective To investigate the independent factors associated with the apex of left atrial appendage(LAA) spontaneous echo contrast (SEC) in patients with valvular atrial fibrillation (VAF). Methods Seventeen normal subjects and 21 patients with VAF were included. Plasma fibrinogen (Fg),vov Willebrand factor (vWF),D-dimer (DD),P-selectin,thrombin-antithrombin complexes (TAT) and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1(PAI-1) were measured. The apex of LAA SEC was assessed quantitatively by integrated backscatter (IBS). LAA flow and pulmonary venous flow were detected by transesophageal echocardiography. Results Fg,vWF,DD,TAT and PAI-1 were increased significantly in patients with atrial fibrillation compared with control ( P

Objective To determine the normal ranges of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide(NT-proBNP) in normal children and children with symptoms of heart failure(HF),and to study their clinical implications.Methods Concentrations of serum NT-proBNP were determined in 80 normal children and 70 children with clinical symptoms of HF.Venous blood was taken in each subject,and plasma NT-proBNP was determined by ELISA method.Eighty normal children included 40 boys and 40 girls.Their ages ranged from 1 to 16 years old.Seventy children with HF were divided into two groups.The first group(n=45,21 males,24 females) included children with symptoms of HF caused by dilated cardiomyopathy(DCM).Their ages ranged from 1 to 16 years,and they had a left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF) of less than 50%.The second group(n=25,11 male,14 female) consisted of children with symptoms of HF due to ventricular septal defect(VSD).Their ages ranged from 1 to 16 years,and they had an LVEF of 51%-78%.The serum NT-pro BNP levels were determined by ELISA method and LVEF was measured by echocardiography and clinical symptom score of heart failure was defined by using Ross Score.Results Serum concentration of NT-proBNP was 223.05 fmol/mL in normal children from 1 to 16 years old.NT-proBNP levels did not show a significant age-related or sex-related differences.In children with HF,the plasma NT-proBNP levels were significantly elevated(mean:1353.3 fmol/mL) compared to normal children(t=8.964 P

OBJECTIVE: To explain the current situation of the study on Chinese herb nephropathy (CHN), clarify the concept of CHN and investigate the pathogenesis, also suggest the measures for the prevention and treatment of CHN.DATA SOURCES: Articles about kidney impairment induced by Chinese herbal medicine containing aristolochic acid (AA) published in English between January 1994 and April 2006 were searched in Pubmed database by using the keywords of "kidney impairment induced by Chinese herbal medicine containing aristolochic acid (AA), nephropathy induced by aristolochic acid (AA), Chinese herb nephropathy (CHN)". Other articles were collected by the specific name of journals and title of papers by retrieving VIP database.STUDY SELECTION: The original articles were checked primarily, those about kidney impairment induced by Chinese herbal medicine containing AA were selected, those obviously irrelevant ones were excluded, and the full-texts of the involved articles were searched manually.DATA EXTRACTION: Totally 86 articles were collected, 20 of them were involved, and the other 66 repetitive studies or reviews were excluded:DATA SYNTHESIS: At present, kidney impairment induced by Chinese herbal medicine has not attracted enough attentions in Chinese, and effective monitoring system should be established. The diagnosis and pathogenesis of nephropathy induced by AA are still unclear, and the prevention is the main treatment. Therefore, we should realize its harmfulness, and reinforce its basic and clinical researches.CONCLUSION: The main damage in kidney caused by AA focuses on the renal tubulointerstitial matrix. Renal glomerulus is rarely involved in the toxic process. Clinical manifestations also reflect the impairment of renal tubules and interstitium such as interstitial fibrosis. A more effective diagnosis monitoring and screening system should be set up in order to mesh the patients at the early stage. A more stringent method for classification of the species in fourstamen stephania root family will be established to avoid confusion and error. More valid therapeutic channels should investigate for its remedy.