Routine coronary angioplasty with autoperfusion balloon catheter: Can prolonged inflations reduce myocardial ischemia and preserve myocardial function?

Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) is an established technique in the management of patients with angina pectoris or acute myocardial infarction. One of the major problems related to PTCA is myocardial ischemia following balloon catheter occlusion of the coronary artery. A new device utilized in an attempt to counteract myocardial ischemia is the perfusion balloon catheter which allows passive transmission of pulsatile blood flow to the distal myocardial bed. Our purpose was to compare immediate results following traditional PTCA and autoperfusion balloon PTCA in two groups randomly assigned to receive one of the two treatments (total patients n. = 158). The results show that coronary angioplasty was successfully performed in 98.87% of patients treated with autoperfusion PTCA and in 97.10% of those treated with conventional PTCA. In the autoperfusion PTCA group we observed a lower incidence (statistically significant) of ST elevation and of minor complications. We conclude that autoperfusion balloon catheter angioplasty may be recommended for its immediate success rate with good patient tolerance and lower incidence of in-hospital complications.

[Changes in renal function in subjects undergoing an aortocoronary bypass with extracorporeal circulation]. / Modificazioni della funzionalità renale in soggetti sottoposti a by-pass aorto-coronarico in circolazione extracorporea.

It is well known that extracorporeal circulation (ECC) may determine an impaired renal function. The aim of our study was to identify those patients who, on the basis of the presence of cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hyperlipidemia, show more evident signs of such dysfunction. The study was conducted on 333 male patients, aged > 49 years, with normal renal function, who underwent coronary artery by-pass surgery in extracorporeal circulation. The results show that, among the cardiovascular risk factors, hypertension has a major influence on renal function after performing extracorporeal circulation, particularly on glomerular filtration rate and, when associated to diabetes mellitus, renal dysfunction may persist until the 9th post-operative day.

The formamidine amitraz as a hyperglycemic alpha-agonist in worker honeybees (Apis mellifera mellifera L.) in vivo.

Intra-abdominal injection of amitraz (0.25 nmol per honeybee, i.e., approx 2.3 nmol/g) to emerging worker bees, in vivo, led to a significant hypertrehalosemia (300-400%) followed by a hyperglucosemia (approximately equal to 600%). Maxima were reached at 0.5 and 2 h, respectively. A strong negative correlation between glucosemia and trehalosemia appeared after injection of pure phentolamine (1 nmol per bee), suggesting stimulation of trehalase activities. Simultaneous administration of the alpha-blocker at greater than or equal to 0.25 nmol per individual suppressed the hyperglycemic response of amitraz. The formamidine pesticide thus likely acts on the honeybee alpha-aminergic system.