The RV FDG accumulation corrected for the partial volume effect was significantly increased in accordance with the severity of the RV pressure overload (i.e., the RV peak-systolic wall stress) in patients with pulmonary hypertension. Furthermore, the corrected RV FDG accumulation was decreased after the treatment with epoprostenol in accordance with the degree of reduction in the pulmonary vascular resistance and RV peak-systolic wall stress.

In rats with ascending aortic stenosis, chronic ACE inhibition with fosinopril improved survival, decreased the extent of LV hypertrophy, and improved cardiac function despite persistent elevation of LV systolic pressure. The favorable effects of fosinopril may be related in part to inhibition of the effects of cardiac ACE on myocyte hypertrophy rather than to systemic hemodynamic mechanisms.

These results indicate that the whole-brain LIPUS is an effective and non-invasive therapy for dementia by activating specific cells corresponding to each pathology, for which eNOS activation plays an important role as a common mechanism.

No abstract

To investigate the effects of long-term pressure overload on regional myocardial substrate use, we performed quantitative autoradiography using 2-deoxy-D-[U-14C]glucose (14C-DG) and P-methyl[1-14C]heptadecanoic acid (14C-BMHDA) in conscious rats with a 10-week ascending aortic constriction. Heart weight/body weight ratio increased by 27% in aortic-constricted rats as compared with sham-operated rats (p<0.01). Myocardial AC-DG uptake increased (258+63 vs. 144+41 nCi/g, p<0.01, n=6 for each group); however, 14C-BMHDA extraction decreased (251±69 vs. 342±75 nCi/g, p<0.05, n =7 for each group) in aortic-constricted rats as compared with sham-operated rats. In sham-operated rats, both '4C-DG and 14C-BMHDA uptakes were higher in the left ventricular anterior and lateral walls as compared with the posterior wall or the interventricular septum. In aortic-constricted rats, 14C-DG uptake also increased in the interventricular septum, as well as in the left ventricular anterior and lateral walls, as compared with the posterior wall. There was, however, no regional difference in '4C-BMHDA extraction among these four regions. Myocardial blood flow distribution determined by 4-[N-methyl-14Cliodoantipyrine or myocyte width showed no regional variations among the four regions, either in aortic-constricted or sham-operated rats. Regional interstitial fibrosis was small in either group. The present study suggests that myocardial substrate uptake is altered nonhomogeneously, and that the nonhomogeneity is not because of regional variations in blood flow distribution, myocyte hypertrophy, or interstitial fibrosis. The results of angiotensin Il-induced acute pressure overloading in other sham-operated rats, in which a remarkable increase in myocardial A4C-BMHDA extraction (n=3, p<0.01) and no difference in '4C-DG uptake (n =3) as compared with normotensive sham-operated rats were elicited, suggest that the findings in aortic-constricted rats are not direct responses to increased left ventricular pressure itself but rather should be explained by still unknown factors related to prolonged pressure overload. (Circulation 1990;81:1353-