An omission in guidelines: cardiovascular disease prevention should also focus on dietary policies for healthcare facilities

Suboptimal diet is a major modifiable risk factor in cardiovascular disease. Governments, individuals, educational institutes, healthcare facilities and the industry all share the responsibility to improve dietary habits. Healthcare facilities in particular present a unique opportunity to convey the importance of healthy nutrition to patients,...

Development of a new test for the global fibrinolytic capacity in whole blood

Background: The development of global tests for the fibrinolytic capacity in blood is hampered by the low base-line fibrinolytic activity in blood, by the involvement of both plasmatic components and blood cells in the fibrinolytic system and by the loss of fibrinolytic activity as a result of the action of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI...

Genetic inflammatory factors predict restenosis after percutaneous coronary interventions

Background - Restenosis is a negative effect of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). No clinical factors are available that allow good risk stratification. However, evidence exists that genetic factors are important in the restenotic process as well as in the process of inflammation, a pivotal factor in restenosis. Association studies have...

Current PTCA practice and clinical outcomes in the Netherlands: The real world in the pre-drug-eluting stent era

Aims To document the practice of interventional cardiology and the clinical restenosis rate, as well as the risk factors for clinical restenosis in an unselected population of patients in daily practice and to provide a perspective for the need of new devices such as drug-eluting stents. Methods and results A total of 3177 consecutive patients,...

Involvement of calcium and G proteins in the acute release of tissue- type plasminogen activator and von Willebrand factor from cultured human endothelial cells

In this study, we investigated the role of Ca2+ and G proteins in thrombin-induced acute release (regulated secretion) of tissue-type plasminogen activator (TPA) and yon Willebrand factor (vWF), using a previously described system of primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). The acute release of TPA and vWF, as induced by α...

Mechanisms of cell death in energy depleted cardiomyocytes: a role of calcium overload, calpian and phospholipase

cGMP and nitric oxide modulate thrombin-induced endothelial permeability: Regulation via different pathways in human aortic and umbilical vein endothelial cells

Previous studies have demonstrated that cGMP and cAMP reduce the endothelial permeability for fluids and macromolecules when the endothelial permeability is increased by thrombin. In this study, we have investigated the mechanism by which cGMP improves the endothelial barrier function and examined whether nitric oxide (NO) can serve as an...

Potential of 99mTc-LDLs labeled by two different methods for scintigraphic detection of experimental atherosclerosis in rabbits

In this study we evaluated two different 99mTc-labeling techniques to produce 99mTc-low density lipoprotein (99mTc-LDL) suitable for the scintigraphic delineation of experimental atherosclerotic lesions. The two methods are 1) a procedure that uses stannous chloride and sodium borohydride (borohydride method) and 2) a procedure that uses sodium...

Partial characterization of low density lipoprotein preparations isolated from fresh and frozen plasma after radiolabeling by seven different methods

Four 99mTc and three 123I labeling methods were evaluated for their suitability to label low density lipoproteins (LDL) for the purpose of scintigraphic biodistribution studies. For 99mTc these methods were: direct incorporation in LDL of 99mTcO4- using sodium dithionite (dithionite method); a method using first N,N-dimethylformamide to prepare...