Intimal hyperplasia and coronary flow reserve after heart transplantation: association with big endothelin-1

BACKGROUND: Endothelin, a peptide with strong vasoconstrictive and mitogenic properties, has been found to increase after cardiac transplantation. We therefore assessed the association between its precursor peptide, big endothelin-1, and intimal hyperplasia and coronary flow reserve after heart transplantation. METHODS: Thirty-five patients without hemodynamically significant coronary artery disease after heart transplantation were investigated: Average peak flow velocity in the left anterior descending artery (LAD) was assessed by intracoronary Doppler at baseline as well as after injection of adenosine; coronary flow reserve was calculated as a ratio of both and was corrected for patient age and baseline average peak flow velocity. Lumen, intima + media and total vessel area were measured by intracoronary ultrasound. The plasma concentration of big endothelin-1 in venous blood was determined by radioimmunoassay. RESULTS: Patients with elevated big endothelin-1 levels (>2 fmol/ml) tended to have a decreased corrected coronary flow reserve (2.60 +/- 0.9 vs 3.21 +/- 1.0, p = 0.078). They also had a significantly larger intima + media area (5.82 +/- 2.9 vs 2.37 +/- 2.9 mm(2), p = 0.004) and total vessel area (18.36 +/- 5.8 vs 12.81 +/- 4.8 mm(2), p = 0.012) than those with normal plasma concentrations. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests an association between elevated big endothelin-1 plasma levels and the development of intimal hyperplasia and reduction of coronary flow reserve after cardiac transplantation.     

大肠肿瘤组织中EB病毒的原位杂交检测

目的：探讨EB病毒感染与人大肠癌发生的关系。方法：用原位分子杂交法对130例人大肠癌标本中EB病毒小分子RNA片段进行检测。结果：130例标本中有6例（4.48％）癌组织呈阳性反应，其中4例为男性，4例有明显淋巴细胞浸润。结论：EB病毒感染可能与我国部分大肠腺癌的发生有关，肿瘤细胞间质中大量淋巴细胞浸润可能是EB病毒感染的重要病理学特征。