[Clinical characteristics of patients and number of stem cells in the myocardium of right atrial appendage in patients with ischemic heart disease].

In the last years stem cells (SC) have been identified in rodent and human hearts. These cells have ability to multilineage differentiation in vitro and in vivo and improve cardiac function. The development of new methods of isolation SC offers new approaches to cardiac regeneration. However, the question of how individual patient characteristics influence the number of SC remains unclear. In our study we aimed to define the correlation between patient characteristics and SC number. Our findings suggest that clinical characteristics and severity of the disease may affect the yield of SC in heart tissue. Our data contribute to the development of efficient methods for SC isolation for stem cell therapy.

[Long-term prognosis in patients with acute non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction depending on dynamics of tissue myocardial dopplerography].

AIM: To study long-term prognosis in patients with non-ST elevation acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with reference to changes in myocardial tissue dopplerography (MTD) in the course of treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS: MTD echocardiography was conducted in 88 non-ST elevation AMI (mean age 58.0-9.8 years) and 34 healthy volunteers (mean age 58.0 +/- 9.8 years). Measurements were made of the velocity of systolic, early and late diastolic peaks at 4 levels of interventricular septum, anterior, lateral and inferior walls of the left ventricle (LV). MTD was repeated before the discharge from hospital. The patients were followed up for 10-18 months after the discharge. RESULTS: By MTD results the patients were divided into 3 subgroups: 1--an asymmetric decrease of MTD values--17(19.3%) patients who had a 20% reduction of the systolic and early diastolic peak velocity compared to healthy controls on one or two adjacent LV walls; subgroup 2--a diffuse decline of MTD values--61 (69.3%) patients. Their velocity of systolic and early diastolic peaks was subnormal on all the walls, all levels of estimation; subgroup 3--10 (11.4%) patients without MTD changes. These proportions changed in the course of treatment: the number of patients with a diffuse decrease of MTD values reduced to 31 (35.3%), the number of patients with an asymmetric MTD decrease rose to 37 (42%), and with unchanged MTD rose to 20 (22.7%) patients. The rate of development of congestive cardiac failure (CCF) and asymptomatic LV dysfunction in the long-term period was significantly higher in the subgroup with retained diffuse decrease of MTD values. CONCLUSION: The treatment of non-ST elevation AMI reduces the number of patients with a diffuse decrease of MTD values and elevates the number of patients with asymmetric decrease of MTD and unchanged MTD. Persistence of MTD diffuse changes is an unfavourable prognostic factor in relation to CCF and LV silent dysfunction.

[Left ventricular heart aneurism--a new source of resident cardiac stem cells].

In the past few years it has been established that the heart contains a reservoir of stem and progenitor cells that have the ability to differentiate in vitro and in vivo toward vascular and cardiac lineages and that show cardiac regeneration potential in vivo following injection into the infracted myocardium. The aim of the present study was to characterize cardiac stem cells in the tissue of chronic left ventricular aneurism. It was shown that human c-kit positive cells were scattered in fibrous, muscle and adipose parts of aneurism tissue. C-kit positive cells localized mainly in fibrous tissue nearby large vessels, however, c-kit positive cells did not express endothelial, smooth muscle or cardiomyocyte cell markers. Co-localization experiments demonstrated that all c-kit positive cells were of non-hematopoietic origin, since they did not express markers such as CD34 and CD45. Majority of c-kit positive cells expressed MDR1, but showed no proliferation activity (Ki67). It thus appears that aneurism tissue could be an alternative source of autologous cardiac stem cells. However, their regeneration capacity should be further explored.