We conclude that athermal EM field exposures induce stress responses that protect chick embryo myocardium from anoxia damage. These results suggest that EM field exposures may be a useful, noninvasive means of minimizing myocardial damage during surgery, transplantation, or heart attack in humans.

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This study used a 5D flow framework to explore the influence of arrhythmia on thrombogenic hemodynamic parameters in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods: A fully self-gated, 3D radial, highly accelerated free-running 5D flow sequence with interleaved four-point velocity-encoding was acquired using an in vitro arrhythmic flow phantom and in 25 patients with a history of AF (68 ± 8 y, 6 female). Self-gating signals were used to calculate AF burden, bin data, and tag each k-space line with its RR Length. Data were binned as an RR-resolved dataset with four RR-interval bins (RR1-RR4, short-to-long) for compressed sensing reconstruction. AF burden was calculated as interquartile range of all intrascan RR-intervals divided by median RR-interval, and left atrial (LA) stasis as the percent of the cardiac cycle where the velocity was <0.1 m/s. Results: In vitro results demonstrated successful recovery of RR-binned flow curves using RR-resolved 5D flow compared to a real-time PC reference standard. In vivo, 5D flow was acquired in 8:48 minutes. AF burden was significantly correlated with 5D flow-derived peak (PV) and mean (MV) velocity and stasis (|ρ| = 0.54-0.75, P < .001). Sensitivity analyses determined a threshold for low versus high AF burden at 9.7%. High burden patients had increased LA mean stasis (up to +42%, P < .01), and lower MV and PV (−30%, −40.6%, respectively, P < .01). RR4 deviated furthest from respiratory-resolved reconstruction (end-expiration) with increased mean stasis (7.6% ± 14.0%, P = .10) and decreased PV (−12.7 ± 14.2%, P = .09). Conclusions: RR-resolved 5D flow can capture temporal and RR-resolved 3D hemodynamics in <10 minutes and offers a novel approach to investigate arrhythmias.

Stress proteins are important in protection during cardiac ischemia/reperfusion (cessation and return of blood flow) and are reportedly induced by electromagnetic (EM) fields. This suggests a possible ischemia protection role for EM exposures. To test this, chick embryos (96 h) were exposed to 60 Hz magnetic fields prior to being placed into anoxia. Survival was 39.6% (control), and 68.7% (field‐exposed). As a positive control, embryos were heated prior to anoxia (57.6% survival). We conclude that: 1) 60 Hz magnetic field exposures reduce anoxia‐induced mortality in chick embryos, comparable to reductions observed following heat stress, and 2) this is a simple and rapid experiment to demonstrate the existence of weak EM field effects. Bioelectromagnetics 19:498–500, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Twelve outpatients with type II diabetes mellitus and mild clinical signs and history of cardiac failure were studied to assess the effects of ibopamine on glucose and lipid metabolism. For the assessment of cardiac failure a clinical score was computed, based on the evidence of dyspnea and ankle oedema. The patients were randomly allocated to ibopamine 100 mg t.i.d. or placebo in a double-blind cross-over 3 weeks design. Daily plasma glucose profile, glycaemia and plasma insulin during glucose tolerance test, serum C-peptide, lactacidemia, free fatty acids, triglycerides, urinary glucose, diuresis and clinical evaluation were the studied parameters. During the study, a clinically favourable trend for ibopamine was observed, as far as cardiac failure was concerned. No significant differences were found between ibopamine and placebo in any of the metabolic parameters. No change in diet or in the previous dosage of the antidiabetic drugs occurred during the study in any patient. We conclude that ibopamine 100 mg t.i.d. does not affect metabolic control and lipid pattern in type II diabetic patients, therefore representing a safe tool for the treatment of chronic heart failure in these patients.