Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.1.1.7 (acetylcholinesterase)
 28,390 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is associated with activation of the cardiac sympathetic nerves. However, impairment of the sympathetic nerve terminals in patients with CHF has been indicated by studies showing reduction of cardiac norepinephrine uptake and stores. This investigation studies the histochemical evaluation of the sympathetic nerve terminals in CHF. The cardiac parasympathetic innervation was also studied to address the question of specificity of the presumed sympathetic denervation. Nineteen patients with CHF underwent cardiac transplantation or partial ventriculectomy, which provided the heart tissue. In 11 of them, the dilated cardiomyopathy was associated with Chagas' disease. Inflammatory process and fibrosis were studied histologically. The sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve fibers were visualized through histochemical techniques for, respectively, catecholamines and acetylcholinesterase activity. By using a computer-assisted morphometric program, the inflammation, fibrosis, and parasympathetic innervation were quantified. Moderate to severe fibrosing myocarditis characterized the hearts of the chagasic patients. In cardiomyopathies not associated with Chagas' disease, the inflammation was discrete, if present, but the amount of fibrosis was similar to that found in Chagas' cardiomyopathy. Reduction of both kinds of nerve terminals occurred in the heart of all patients. The parasympathetic denervation was proven to be more severe in chagasic cardiomyopathy. Our data on the heart innervation indicate a progressive autonomic denervation in heart failure. In Chagas' heart disease, the denervation seems to be more severe or rapid, probably because of the sustained inflammatory process.
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PMID:Cardiac autonomic denervation in congestive heart failure: comparison of Chagas' heart disease with other dilated cardiomyopathy. 1066 6

Our aim was to perform a preliminary study of blood flow in the peripheral microcirculation in patients with heart failure. Cardiac patients were investigated to establish possible microcirculatory changes due to this pathology. We evaluated 16 patients (non-smokers, dislipidemic with hypercholesterolemia), receiving oral treatment and in NYHA class 2.3 +/- 0.5. A dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) group was evaluated before cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) obtained by biventricular intra-cardiac defibrillator (ICD) implantation, and again 3 months after its implantation. We measured the ejection fraction (EF), peripheral blood flow (using laser Doppler) at the left wrist on the volar side, capillary morphology (using computerized videocapillaroscopy) on the nail bed of the 4th finger of the left hand, rheological status (using the LORCA), as well as hematocrit, hemoglobin concentration, red blood cell (RBC) surface acetylcholinesterase (AchE), and homocysteine. Our data show that in the DCM vs. control group, peripheral flow did not depend only on the heart: throughout the study, blood flow did not change significantly compared to controls and was increased after CRT. There was no decrease in aggregation time. The blood flow did not alter RBC deformability or RBC surface AchE. Due to the lower oxygenation and to a non-significant increase in the number of capillaries after CRT, DCM patients are at higher cardiovascular risk than healthy subjects.
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PMID:Could dilated cardiomyopathy alter the peripheral microcirculation and blood rheology? 2020 69