Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0018801 (heart failure)
 72,216 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Typical symptoms of acute myocardial infarction led to admission of a 66-year-old female. Creatine kinase (CK) was 720 U/l on admission and together with CK-MB of 108 U/l fitted the clinical picture. The ECG showed complete left bundle branch block. The patient died a few hours later in cardiac failure. Massive hypercalcaemia of 6.2 mmol/l and hyperphosphataemia of 1.6 mmol/l suggested acute primary hyperparathyroidism already clinically which later could be verified by a parathormone level of more than 100 000 ng/l ("C-terminal assay"). At necropsy chief cell adenoma of the epithelial bodies was found, typical changes of primary hyperparathyroidism in the skeleton and kidneys, and disseminated calcifications and fresh necroses of cardiac muscle. The coronaries were normal. This is the first clinical report of fatal acute primary hyperparathyroidism due to hypercalcaemia-induced myocardial necroses.
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PMID:[Calcium induced necroses of cardiac muscle causing death in acute hyperparathyroidism (author's transl)]. 735 14

Cardiac transplantation, effective therapy for end-stage heart failure, is frequently complicated by allograft rejection, the mechanisms of which remain incompletely understood. Nitric oxide (NO), a vasodilator which is cytotoxic and negatively inotropic, can be produced in large amounts by an inducible NO synthase (iNOS) in response to cytokines. To investigate whether iNOS is induced during cardiac allograft rejection, hearts from Lewis or Wistar-Furth rats were transplanted into Lewis recipients. At day 5, allogeneic grafts manifested reduced contractility and histologic evidence of rejection (inflammatory infiltrate, edema, necrosis of myocytes). The mRNA for iNOS and iNOS protein were detected in ventricular homogenates and in isolated cardiac myocytes from rejecting allogeneic grafts but not in tissue and myocytes from syngeneic control grafts. Immunocytochemistry showed increased iNOS staining in infiltrating macrophages and in microvascular endothelial cells and cardiac muscle fibers and also in isolated purified cardiac myocytes from the rejecting allografts. Using a myocardial cytosolic iNOS preparation, nitrite formation from L-arginine and [3H] citrulline formation from [3H]L-arginine were increased significantly in the rejecting allogeneic grafts (P < 0.01). Myocardial cyclic GMP was also increased significantly (P < 0.05). The data indicate myocardial iNOS mRNA, protein and enzyme activity are induced in infiltrating macrophages and cardiac myocytes of the rejecting allogeneic grafts. Synthesis of NO by iNOS may contribute to myocyte necrosis and ventricular failure during cardiac allograft rejection.
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PMID:Induction of myocardial nitric oxide synthase by cardiac allograft rejection. 751 42

We wished to provide comparative information regarding the direct effects of flosequinan, a novel quinolone under development for treating heart failure, on isolated human arterial, venous, and cardiac muscle. A similar assessment was made for four other agents--milrinone, ouabain, captopril and diltiazem--that have been used to treat heart failure patients, as well as for flosequinoxan, which is the primary metabolite of flosequinan. Flosequinan produced a potent and balanced relaxant effect on norepinephrine (NE)-contracted human arterial and venous smooth muscle, with IC25 values of 0.32 and 0.50 microM, respectively. At higher concentrations, flosequinan also produced a positive inotropic effect on human cardiac muscle (EC25 = 32 microM). A similar pattern of responses was observed with flosequinoxan. The pharmacologic profile obtained for the other agents examined differed from that observed with flosequinan and flosequinoxan in the following ways: Milrinone produced both vascular relaxant and positive inotropic effects, but at comparable concentrations; ouabain produced both vasoconstrictor and positive inotropic effects; diltiazem exerted a vascular relaxant effect at low concentrations and a negative inotropic effect at higher concentrations; and captopril had slight arterial relaxant and negative inotropic effects. These results demonstrate that the pharmacologic profile of flosequinan and flosequinoxan is unique as compared with that of other agents that have been used to treat patients with heart failure.
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PMID:Assessment of flosequinan's direct effect on human arterial, venous, and cardiac muscle: comparison with other classes of agents used to treat heart failure. 752 63

A major determinant of survival in patients with advanced viral or bacterial infection, or following severe trauma or burns complicated by multiple organ failure, is the combination of clinical signs termed the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). SIRS is characterized by hypotension, tachypnea, hypo- or hyperthermia and leukocytosis as well as other clinical signs and symptoms, including a depression in myocardial contractile function. Heart failure complicating systemic sepsis or other causes of SIRS is usually not accompanied by coronary artery ischemia due to hypotension, myocardial necrosis, or marked cardiac interstitial inflammatory infiltrates, and thus the cause of cardiac contractile dysfunction in this syndrome has remained unclear. However, recent evidence has implicated an endogenous nitric oxide (NO) signalling pathway within cardiac myocytes and other cellular constituents of cardiac muscle, including the microvascular endothelium, as a possible contributor to the pathogenesis of heart failure in this syndrome. Cardiac myocytes are now known to express both constitutive NO synthase (cNOS) and inducible NO synthase (iNOS) activities. Activation of cNOS appears to modulate cardiac myocyte responsiveness to muscarinic cholinergic and beta-adrenergic receptor stimulation. Induction of iNOS by soluble inflammatory mediators, including cytokines, causes a marked depression in myocyte contractile responsiveness to beta-adrenergic agonists. Thus, inappropriate activation of cNOS or excessive or prolonged induction of iNOS in the myocardium may contribute to cardiac dysfunction complicating SIRS.
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PMID:Myocardial contractile dysfunction in the systemic inflammatory response syndrome: role of a cytokine-inducible nitric oxide synthase in cardiac myocytes. 753 82

Pressure-overload cardiac hypertrophy is associated with the re-expression of an ensemble of genes representative of embryonic myocardium, whose protein products modulate myocardial function. Regulation of cardiac-specific gene expression in end-stage myocardial disease in humans implies a pathophysiologic role for altered gene expression in the progression from compensatory hypertrophy to decompensated heart failure. The molecular signals that transduce load into a hypertrophic cardiac myocyte phenotype involve mechanical deformation and the local myocardial production of trophic factors, including angiotensin II, and transforming and fibroblast growth factors. Growth factors provoke a pattern of gene expression in cultured cardiac myocytes resembling that seen in pressure overload in vivo, in keeping with an autocrine or paracrine model of hypertrophy. Moreover, growth factor stimulation and pressure-overload hypertrophy share intracellular signaling pathways, including the activation of nuclear proteins encoded by cellular oncogenes. Elucidation of these signaling pathways may provide new therapeutic targets for the treatment of cardiac muscle disease that overcomes the limitations of currently available strategies.
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PMID:Molecular biology of myocardial hypertrophy and failure: gene expression and trophic signaling. 758 70

Defects of the mitochondrial respiratory chain in cardiac muscle are an important, yet still overlooked cause of heart failure. In 16 of 32 endocardial biopsies from infants affected by "idiopathic" hypertrophic cardiomyopathy we demonstrated a remarkable decrease of activity of either complex I, or complex IV, or both, relative to complex II + III activity which was taken as an index of mitochondrial proliferation. At the molecular level, several mtDNA mutations have been associated with cardiomyopathy. For instance, MIMyCa is a maternally inherited syndrome presenting with a variable combination of skeletal and heart muscle failure associated with a heteroplasmic A3260G transition in the tRNALeu(UUR) gene. To study the effects of the mutation in a controlled system, we prepared clones of transmitochondrial cybrids by fusing mutant cytoplasts with mtDNA-less tumor cells. Two groups of clones were identified: nearly 100% mutant (M group) and nearly 100% wild-type (WT group). The means of complex I and IV in the M group were 63% and 67% relative to the WT group. The O2 consumption in the M group was 36%, and the lactate production was 218% of that in the WT group. MtDNA-specific translation was defective in M clones. The study of transmitochondrial cybrids is an important clue to test the pathogenicity of mtDNA mutations.
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PMID:OXPHOS defects and mitochondrial DNA mutations in cardiomyopathy. 760 20

1. EMD 57033 produces a positive inotropic effect by increasing the sensitivity of cardiac muscle myofilaments to calcium. Since the elevation in intracellular calcium produced by conventional inotropic compounds is thought to be arrhythmogenic, it is hoped that compounds such as EMD 57033 may increase cardiac output without exacerbating arrhythmias in patients with cardiac failure. This is the first study to examine whether EMD 57033 influences the susceptibility of the heart to ventricular arrhythmias. 2. We used the isolated working rat heart to investigate the effect of EMD 57033 on wall-stress-induced ventricular arrhythmia. Arrhythmias were induced by increases in ventricular afterload, and the effect of 2 mumol/l EMD 57033 on ventricular arrhythmias was investigated. The effect of 2 mumol/l EMD 57033 on contractility and arrhythmias was also assessed in the presence of different levels of perfusate calcium. 3. EMD 57033 was positively inotropic in the working rat heart, but it also produced a reversible increase in wall-stress-induced ventricular arrhythmia. The incidence of both ventricular ectopics and complex arrhythmias such as ventricular tachycardia were significantly increased by EMD 57033. Arrhythmias increased progressively as the level of perfusate calcium was raised within the physiological range. 4. The mechanism by which EMD 57033 increases wall-stress-induced arrhythmia is unclear, but it seems unlikely to be directly due to elevation of intracellular calcium. Further studies of the arrhythmogenic profile of this novel compound are required in a variety of models to assess its suitability and safety as a potentially therapeutic compound in heart failure.
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PMID:EMD 57033 enhances arrhythmias associated with increased wall-stress in the working rat heart. 767 69

A patient with cytoplasmic body myopathy presented muscle hypotonia from birth and developed progressive muscular atrophy and weakness, scoliosis, contracture of joints and cardiorespiratory failure. At the age of 17, he died of heart failure. Post mortem examination revealed severe hypertrophy of cardiac walls and generalized muscular atrophy. Microscopic examination showed many cytoplasmic bodies in skeletal muscle fibers and myofiber disarray in myocardium. No cases of cytoplasmic body myopathy with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy have been reported previously. It is suggested that the Z-line component is related to the formation of the cytoplasmic body in skeletal muscle and disarray in the cardiac muscle.
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PMID:Cytoplasmic body myopathy with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. 778 21

In isolated cardiac muscle from patients with severe heart failure (HF) the force-frequency relation (FFR) is often negative, but the characteristics of the FFR under basal conditions and its responsiveness to adrenergic stimulation have not been studied in the intact, failing heart. Severe HF was produced in pigs (n = 6) by continuous rapid left ventricular (LV) pacing (225 beats/min). In the conscious resting state, high-fidelity LV pressure and its maximum first derivative (LV dP/dtmax) were obtained over a range of atrial pacing rates (100-225 beats/min) before (control) and after HF. Before HF, the relationship between increased heart rate and LV dP/dtmax (a measure of the FFR) was flat, but during dobutamine infusion the FFR showed a significant positive slope (P < 0.003). After HF, the basal FFR was depressed, but the slope of the FFR was not increased by dobutamine. After HF, responses of dP/dtmax to slowing of HR by a specific sinus node inhibitor confirmed the absence of a negative basal FFR. In conclusion, the basal LV FFR in conscious pigs with severe HF was not negative. Unlike the normal heart, in HF beta-adrenergic receptor stimulation did not amplify the FFR, a phenomenon that could play an important role in the impaired response to exercise in patients with HF.
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PMID:Force-frequency relations during heart failure in pigs. 781 Jul 47

The effect of vascular endothelium, endocardium, and coronary endothelium on vascular tone and myocardial contraction-relaxation sequence in heart failure is discussed. Vascular endothelium affects underlying vascular smooth muscle through paracrine secretion of relaxing and constricting factors. In heart failure, systemic vasoconstriction results not only from neuroendocrine activation, but also from disturbed local endothelial control of vascular tone because of impaired endothelial-dependent vasodilation and because of increased plasma concentration of endothelin. Experimental evidence obtained in isolated cardiac muscle strips established the influence of endocardial endothelium on the duration of myocardial contraction and on the onset of myocardial relaxation. By analogy to vascular endothelium, both diffusible agents that abbreviate (endothelial-derived relaxation factor-like substance) and those that prolong (endocardin) myocardial contraction have been shown to be released from the endocardium. Similar agents are released from the coronary endothelium and, because of the close proximity of capillaries and myocytes, could exert a major effect on myocardial performance. Endothelial dysfunction and concomitant lack of release of myocardial relaxant factors could explain left ventricular relaxation abnormalities observed in the cardiac allograft or in arterial hypertension. Since endothelial-derived relaxation factor or nitric oxide mediates the coronary reactive hyperemic response, a negative inotropic action of nitric oxide could contribute to left ventricular failure when left ventricular wall stress is elevated, as occurs after myocardial infarction in the noninfarcted zone and during left ventricular volume or pressure overload in the absence of adequate hypertrophy.
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PMID:Endothelial control of vascular and myocardial function in heart failure. 794 59


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