The data of the present study indicate that, despite comparable surgical trauma, the OPCAB revascularization procedure without the use of CPB and cardioplegic arrest significantly reduces the systemic inflammatory response syndrome and early catecholamine requirement. This may contribute to improved organ function, subsequently resulting in improved postoperative recovery from surgical revascularization procedures, particularly in critically ill patients.

Abstract-Using bioinformatic analyses of full-length, enriched human cDNA libraries, we recently identified salusins, multifunctional related peptides ubiquitously expressed in major human tissues. Salusins cause transient and profound hypotension when injected intravenously to rats, the hypotensive effect of salusin-␤ being especially striking. However, the mechanisms of this hypotensive action remain elusive. To determine whether salusins modulate cardiac function in rats, we studied serial changes of systemic hemodynamics and functions of isolated perfused working and nonworking hearts before and after salusin administration. Intravenous salusin-␤ administration to intact anesthetized rats caused a temporary rapid, profound decrease in aortic blood flow concomitantly with hypotension and bradycardia without affecting systemic vascular resistance. Salusin-␤-induced hypotension and bradycardia were completely blocked by pretreatment with atropine, a muscarinic receptor antagonist, but not by propranolol. In isolated perfused working rat hearts, salusin-␤ significantly decreased cardiac output, aortic flow, and stroke work. However, it did not affect coronary flow in isolated working and nonworking hearts. Our results indicate that salusins induce potent hypotension via negative inotropic and chronotropic actions. Salusin-␤ promotes its actions by facilitating vagal outflows to the heart, whereas the negative inotropism of salusin-␤ is also mediated via a direct myotropic effect. Key Words: cardiac output Ⅲ heart rate Ⅲ blood pressure Ⅲ vascular resistance T he availability of a massive amount of information on human genome sequences has allowed for the faster elucidation of gene functions. Functional characterization of putative bioactive proteins is an indispensable process in elucidating the roles of secretory proteins. Very recently, we identified 2 novel multifunctional peptides of 28-and 20-residues that we designated as salusin-␣ and salusin-␤, respectively, 1 after screening a number of secretory proteinencoding cDNAs using receptor ligand-facilitated gene transfer protocols. 2,3 These salusins are considered to be generated simultaneously through proteolytic processing of prosalusin, a commonly occurring alternatively spliced product of the TOR2A gene, which has structural homologies to torsion dystonia genes (DYT1 and DQ1). 4,5 Alternative splicing responsible for biosynthesis of salusin peptides is probably not a rare event, and salusins are expressed ubiquitously throughout human tissues. 1 Systemic administration of salusins to rats is associated with rapid and profound hypotension and bradycardia; the maximal hypotensive response to salusin-␤ in rats is almost equivalent to or even exceeds those of the hypotensive peptide hormones identified thus far. Further, other potent endogenous hypotensive peptides do not induce hypotension and concomitant bradycardia with such a time course, implying an as yet undescribed mechanism for salusins. Although the expression of preprosalusin in heart is very limit...

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The present study demonstrates for the first time that selective iNOS inhibition or SOD treatment reduces enhanced MMP-9 protein and activity associated with improvement of both, endothelium-dependent and -independent coronary vasomotor function in rat cardiac allografts. This is accompanied by reduction of nitrotyrosine and superoxide production. This suggests that the proteolytic enzyme MMP-9 is an effector molecule of oxidant-mediated coronary vasomotor dysfunction.

The BNP concentration after CABG was found to be corrected with interim clinical status after surgery. Thus, it may be necessary for patients with a high postoperative BNP concentration to be closely monitored for coronary events.

Intravenous leiomyomatosis (IVL) is a rare benign tumor that originates from uterus, and sometimes extends to the right heart. We report a case of IVL that extended to right atrium through the inferior vena cava (IVC) which was resected using partial cardiopulmonary bypass. Multi detector computed tomography and ultrasound played a vital role in arriving at the diagnosis. Complete resection of tumor in the heart and great vein, and separation of the tumor stump from the IVC are essential in the treatment of IVL.

Direct vasodilator effects of nitroglycerin, nifedipine, cilnidipine and diltiazem on human skeletonized internal mammary artery graft harvested with ultrasonic scalpel were assessed in the presence of 0.1 or 0.2 µM of noradrenaline. Ring preparations were made of distal end section of the bypass grafts, and those dilated by acetylcholine were used for assessment. Each drug dilated the artery in a concentration-related manner (0.01-10 µM, n = 6 for each drug) with a potency of nitroglycerin > nifedipine = cilnidipine > diltiazem. These results indicate that nitroglycerin can be useful for treating internal mammary artery spasm, that clinical utility of diltiazem may not depend on its vasodilator effect on the bypass graft, and that cilnidipine as well as nifedipine will have anti-spastic action which is in the middle between those of nitroglycerine and diltiazem.

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