Hypertension is a common clinical problem and a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and stroke. Elevated heart rate is associated with elevated blood pressure, increased risk for hypertension, and, among hypertensives, increased risk for cardiovascular disease. Despite these important relationships, heart rate is generally not a major consideration in ...

BACKGROUND: After an initial episode of atrial fibrillation (AF), AF may recur and become permanent. AF progression is associated with higher morbidity and mortality. Understanding the risk factors for permanent AF could help identify people who would benefit most from interventions. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether body mass index (BMI), diabetes, ...

BACKGROUND: Cardiorenal interactions adversely impact the prognosis in heart failure patients an effect which crucially involves increased central venous pressure (CVP). However, it is unclear whether the same pathophysiology operates in adults with congenital heart disease (CHD). PURPOSE: The present study was designed to assess cardiorenal interactions in adults with ...

Abstract Objectives: This brief report demonstrates the proof of concept of the Tension Tamer (TT) smartphone application, which integrates photoplethysmograph capabilities with breathing awareness meditation (BAM), to reduce stress and measure heart rate and adherence. Design: Methods for objectively measuring heart rate and adherence to BAM were developed as part ...

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the use of 2 Synergy Micro-Pumps for full biventricular assist device (BiVAD) support. We examined right-sided and left-sided hemodynamic parameters over a range of right-sided and left-sided pump speeds in an acute, fibrillating, non-beating-heart model in sheep. METHODS: Five juvenile sheep (43 ± 2 kg) were ...

AimsTo investigate the effect of antihypertensive therapy on ventricular-arterial mechanics, coupling, and efficiency in early-stage hypertension.Methods and resultsWe studied 527 participants from two clinical trials assessing the effect of blood pressure lowering on diastolic function. Participants were aged ≥45 years with early-stage hypertension, no heart failure, ejection fraction (EF) ≥50%, ...

Systolic function is often evaluated by measuring ejection fraction and its preservation is often assimilated with the lack of impairment of systolic left ventricular (LV) function. Considering the left ventricle as a muscular pump, we explored LV function during chronic hypertension independently of increased afterload conditions. Fourteen conscious and chronically ...

The debate over whether certain antihypertensive medications have benefits beyond what would be expected from their blood pressure lowering spurred the Antihypertensive and Lipid-Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack Trial, which randomized 42,418 participants to chlorthalidone (15,255), amlodipine (9048), lisinopril (9054), or doxazosin (9061). We compared chlorthalidone, the active control, ...

Normal left ventricular (LV) filling occurs rapidly early in diastole caused by a progressive pressure gradient within the ventricle and with a low left atrial pressure. This normal diastolic function is altered in patients with heart failure. Such impairment of diastolic filling is manifested as an abrupt deceleration of the ...

We show that pure rutile TiO(2) can be photo-responsive even under low energy visible light after annealing in vacuum where we envisage that the point defects, i.e. oxygen vacancies and titanium interstitials, serve an important role. In this study, single crystal rutile films were grown by the pulsed laser deposition technique ...

Fuzi (aconite, Radix Aconiti praeparata), a widely used Chinese herb, plays a significant role in the cardiovascular system. This is mainly reflected by Fuzi's cardiotonic effect, its protective effect on myocardial cells, and its effect on heart rate and rhythm, blood pressure, and hemodynamics. In this article, the pharmacological effects ...

Group 2 pulmonary hypertension is most frequently caused by left heart disease, a heterogeneous set of disorders. These processes include left ventricular systolic dysfunction, left ventricular dysfunction with preserved ejection fraction and valvular (mitral and/or aortic) diseases. Left heart disease may cause passive backward transmission of pressure leading to elevated ...

The high mortality rate of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) mainly relates to progressive right ventricular (RV) failure. With limited efficacy of medical therapies, mechanical circulatory support for the RV has been considered. However, there is lack of understanding of the hemodynamic effects of mechanical support in this setting. We modeled ...

Irregular RR intervals in atrial fibrillation (AF) make beat-to-beat changes in left ventricular (LV) systolic performance. Early diastolic mitral annular velocity (E') is one of the well-established parameters for evaluating LV diastolic function. The relation between RR intervals and E's is unknown. The aim of this study was to observe ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate the hypothesis that the adrenergic response of the intraventricular pressure difference (IVPD) is reduced in patients with preserved ejection fraction (EF) and diastolic dysfunction (DD). In early diastole, there is a progressive IVPD extending from the left atrium (LA) to the left ...

Myocardial fibrillar collagen is considered an important determinant of increased ventricular stiffness in pressure-overload (PO)-induced cardiac hypertrophy. Chronic PO was created in feline right ventricles (RV) by pulmonary artery banding (PAB) to define the time course of changes in fibrillar collagen content after PO using a nonrodent model and to ...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to provide a realistic comparison of 3 different extracorporeal compression methods during cardiopulmonary resuscitation on intrathoracic pressure (ITP), hemodynamics, and oxygen metabolism in a swine model of ventricular fibrillation (VF). METHODS: Eight minutes after the development of VF, pigs were subjected to 3 ...

The aim of this study was to evaluate left atrial (LA) volume and mechanical functions by real time three-dimensional echocardiography (RT3DE) in prehypertensive subjects. The study included 54 (34 male and 20 female) prehypertensive subjects and 36 (14 male and 22 female) healthy control subjects. Transthoracic echocardiography and RT3DE were ...

Abstract Objectives: Levosimendan is an inodilator indicated for acute heart failure (AHF). Its vasodilatory and anti-ischemic effects are mediated by the opening of ATP-dependent potassium channels (KATP channels). Diabetes mellitus is common in AHF patients and sulfonylureas are often prescribed. Sulfonylureas act by blocking the KATP channels. An interaction between ...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship of central and peripheral blood pressure to left ventricular mass. METHODS: Cross-sectional study that included 392 never treated hypertensive individuals. Measurement of office, 24-h ambulatory, and central blood pressure (obtained using applanation tonometry) and determination of ...

Background: Load-adjusted measures of left ventricle (LV) systolic performance are limited by dependence on LV stiffness and afterload. To our knowledge, no stiffness-adjusted and afterload-adjusted indicator was tested in models of pressure and volume overload hypertrophy (POH and VOH). We hypothesized that wall stress reflects changes in loading incorporating chamber ...

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this prospective randomized study was to assess the impact of renal artery denervation in patients with a history of refractory atrial fibrillation (AF) and drug-resistant hypertension who were referred for pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). BACKGROUND: Hypertension is the most common cardiovascular condition responsible for the development ...

We have previously demonstrated that biventricular pacing increased cardiac output within 1 hour of weaning from cardiopulmonary bypass in selected patients. To assess the possible sustained benefit, we reviewed in the present study the effects of biventricular pacing on the mean arterial pressure after chest closure. A total of 30 ...

Net acid extrusion from vascular smooth muscle (VSMCs) and endothelial cells (ECs) in the wall of resistance arteries is mediated by the Na(+),HCO(3)(-) cotransporter NBCn1 (SLC4A7) and the Na(+)/H(+) exchanger NHE1 (SLC9A1) and is essential for intracellular pH (pH(i)) control. Experimental evidence suggests that the pH(i) of VSMCs and ECs ...

Few studies described the home blood pressure (HBP) in young children. Using intrafamilial correlations of blood pressure as research focus, we assessed the feasibility of HBP monitoring in this age group. We enrolled 382 mothers (mean age 38.8 years) and singletons (7.0 years) in theTohoku Study of Child Development.We measured ...

The feasibility of using piezohydraulic pumps in drivers for pediatric ventricular assist devices is presented in this article. In this study a 0.5 kg piezohydraulic pump is incorporated into a ventricular assist device driver to drive a pulsatile pediatric 30 mL stroke ventricular assist device (VAD). The driver consists of ...

This paper describes a new application of the recently developed Coefficient of Sample Entropy (CosEn) measure. This entropy estimator is specially suited for cases where the length of the time series is extremely short. CosEn has already been used successfully to characterize and detect atrial fibrillation, using as few as ...

A new oscillometric pulse index (OPI) derived from the maximum slope (MS) of each pulse in the oscillometric blood pressure waveform is proposed for blood pressure estimation. Maximum slope for each pulse is obtained using the first derivative of the pulse and an envelope of the values corresponding to the ...

We analysed respiratory induced heart rate and blood pressure variability in mechanically ventilated patients with different levels of sedation and central nervous system activity. Our aim was to determine whether it is possible to distinguish different levels of sedation or human brain activity from heart rate and blood pressure. We ...

In this study, the end-systolic pressure-volume relation (ESPVR) is used to derive new criteria that can help understand the problem of heart failure with normal or preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). It is shown that the ejection fraction (EF) is just one index of several indexes that can be derived from ...

The left ventricular (LV) aortoseptal angle (ASA) decreases with age, and is associated with basal septal hypertrophy (septal bulge). Enhanced arterial pressure wave reflection is known to impact LV hypertrophy. We assessed whether ASA is related to central blood pressure (BP) and augmentation index (AI), a measure of the reflected ...

The ozonolysis of cyclohexene is studied with respect to the pressure dependent formation of stable gas-phase products and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) as well as the influence of the presence of SO(2). In addition the rate coefficient for the initial reaction cyclohexene + O(3) was determined at 295 K. The ...

To assess the accuracy of density functional theory (DFT) methods in describing hydrogen bonding in condensed phases, we benchmarked their performance in describing phase transitions among different phases of ice. We performed DFT calculations of ice for phases Ih, II, III, VI and VII using BLYP, PW91, PBE, PBE-D, PBEsol, ...

Previous studies have demonstrated that milk fermented by specific Lactococcus lactis strains significantly inhibits the activity of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE). However, the relationship between the ACE inhibitor and its in vivo action has revealed discrepancies. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the antihypertensive and heart ...

AIM OF THE STUDY: In this study we investigated the effects of biochemical, hematologic, and thyroid function parameters on the circadian rhythm of hypertensive patients whose 24-h ambulatory blood pressure was being followed. METHODS: We studied the fasting glucose, urea, creatinine, uric acid, aspartate transaminase, alanine aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl transferase, total ...

To evaluate the effects of aliskiren on blood pressure and myocardial function assessed by global longitudinal strain in patients with uncontrolled arterial hypertension. Forty-five patients were included in the study (29 males, 16 females, mean age 58.7 +/- 12.4 years) with BP > 140/90 mmHg despite treatment with combined antihypertensive ...

Left atrial (LA) maximum volume (LAV(max)) is an indicator of left ventricular (LV) diastolic function. However, LAV(max) is also influenced by systolic events, whereas the LA minimum volume (LAV(min)) is directly exposed to LV pressure. The authors hypothesised that LAV(min) may be a better correlate of LV diastolic function than ...

The cooperative nature of protein substructure and internal motion is a critical aspect of their functional competence about which little is known experimentally. NMR relaxation is used here to monitor the effects of high pressure on fast internal motion in the protein ubiquitin. In contrast to the main chain, the ...

©2012 Wiley Periodicals Inc. Current understanding of the mechanisms of right ventricular (RV) systolic dysfunction in heart failure (HF) is limited. The authors analyzed a limited access dataset from the Evaluation Study of Congestive Heart Failure and Pulmonary Artery Catheterization Effectiveness (ESCAPE) provided by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood ...

Objective:Arterial hypertension is a medical condition associated with increased risks of of death, cardiovascular mortality and cardiovascular morbidity including stroke, coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation and renal insufficiency. Regular physical exercise is considered to be an important part of the non-pharmacologictreatment of hypertension. The purpose of this study was to ...

We present a first principles theoretical framework that accurately accounts for several properties of ice, over a wide pressure range. In particular, we show that, by using a recently developed nonlocal van der Waals functional and by taking into account hydrogen zero point motion, one can properly describe the zero ...

Abstract Resistant hypertension (RH) is frequently associated with a high prevalence of target organ damage, which impairs the prognosis of these patients. Considering cardiac alterations in RH, most attention has been devoted to left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), but data concerning left atrial enlargement (LAE) is less known. This cross-sectional study ...

Research has supported hemispheric specialisation in the regulation of cardiovascular functioning, with the left hemisphere being associated with parasympathetic functioning and the right hemisphere with sympathetic functioning. We sought to investigate this relationship further using vibrotactile stimulation applied to the palms. Our prediction was that vibrotactile stimulation applied to the ...

Abstract To determine the effects of 6wk of supplementation with fish oil (FO) on blood pressure and the morning salivary cortisol concentration in normotensive adults. Testing was performed following an overnight fast. Subjects (n=40; 35+/-13y, mean+/-SD) rested supine for 40min, at which time blood pressure and heart rate were measured. ...

Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) has been used to treat high altitude diseases. The effects of five-week treatment with total flavonoids of seabuckthorn (35, 70, 140 mg/kg, ig) on cobalt chloride (5.5 mg/kg, ip)- and hypobaric chamber (simulating 5,000 m)-induced high-altitude polycythemia in rats were measured. Total flavonoids decreased red blood ...

This open-label, randomized controlled trial investigated the effects of cilnidipine, an L/N-type calcium channel blocker (CCB), in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Sixty patients with CKD and well-controlled hypertension being treated with a renin- angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitor and an L-type CCB (L-CCB) were randomly assigned either to switch ...

Background and aim: The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate echocardiographic changes in clinical responders and nonresponders after 3 and 15 months of cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT). Methods: Fifty eight patients in whom a biventricular system was implanted between 2005 and 2008 were followed up at 3 and ...

The effects of hypertension on resting and reflex cardiovascular function were investigated in this study.  Blood pressure, heart rate and electrocardiogram were recorded in male and female control subjects and hypertensive Nigerian patients.  Blood pressure was measured, using the sphygmomanometer/auscultatory method.  Heart rate was determined from palpating the radial pulse ...

Most of the deaths among patients with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) are caused by progressive right ventricular (RV) pathological remodeling, dysfunction, and failure. Nicorandil can inhibit the development of PAH by reducing pulmonary artery pressure and RV hypertrophy. However, whether nicorandil can inhibit apoptosis in RV cardiomyocytes and prevent ...

Systemic thermal therapy (STT) has been associated with beneficial effects in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). The fact, however, that it requires a dedicated as well as spacious facility and trained personnel makes it difficult to practice in the daily care of patients with CHF. The aim of this ...