Scandinavian journal of clinical and laboratory investigation, 1993
Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy have a great potential both for clinical cardiac diag... more Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy have a great potential both for clinical cardiac diagnostics and for research in cardiac physiology, metabolism and disease. At the present time, cardiac MRI already is the method of choice in several clinical conditions, especially in imaging central vasculature and intra- and paracardiac masses. With the recent development of contrast agents and ability to measure both flow velocities and flow volume, the cardiac MRI is likely to have a profound role in evaluating coronary arterial disease as well as valvular heart disease. The limitations due to long imaging times of cardiac MRI-studies are likely to be overcome with the development of ultrafast imaging techniques in the near future. On the other hand, cardiac MRS is still a research tool, which needs technical improvements before it can be widely utilized in clinical work. However, attempts to this aim are highly justified, when the possibility that MRS will provide metabolic informati...
Perfusion effluent from isolated rat and hamster lungs caused a relaxation of superfused strip of... more Perfusion effluent from isolated rat and hamster lungs caused a relaxation of superfused strip of bovine coronary artery (BCA). This relaxation was abolished by pulmonary infusion of indomethacin. Pre-The present study indicates that neither cigarette smoke ventilation nor pre-exposure to cigarette smoke has a drastic effect on the metab-01 ism of arachidonic acid to myotropic compounds in isolated hamster and rat lungs.
T1 relaxation times of PCr and p-ATP in human cardiac and skeletal muscle were evaluated using a ... more T1 relaxation times of PCr and p-ATP in human cardiac and skeletal muscle were evaluated using a variable nutation method. This allows T, measurements with a constant TR and a significant reduction in acquisition time compared with the partial saturation method. Four 1 D CSI datasets were obtained using 30", 45",60", and 90" BIR-4 adiabatic RF pulses within 40 min. The T1 of the phosphate phantom obtained with this method agreed with values obtained with the partial saturation method. The Tls of PCr and p-ATP in heart are 3.98 t 0.18 s and 1.86 t 0.16 s (mean t SE). Our results demonstrated that Tl values in heart and skeletal muscle are not significantly different.
Until now, transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) has had the capability to visualize only the prox... more Until now, transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) has had the capability to visualize only the proximal portions of the main coronary arteries. However, we noticed that transthoracic color Doppler echocardiography has marked potential to visualize flow in the coronary arteries. In clinical cases we tested whether this method is useful for visualizing stenoses and flow even in peripheral branches of the coronaries. This article presents two illustrative clinical cases. In our experience, transthoracic color Doppler echocardiography is very suitable for clinical use.
Background Psychosocial risk factors influence early retirement and absence from work. Health che... more Background Psychosocial risk factors influence early retirement and absence from work. Health checks by occupational health nurses (OHNs) may prevent deterioration of work ability. Health checks are documented electronically mostly as free text, and therefore the effect of psychological risk factors on working capacity is difficult to detect. Aims To evaluate the potential of text mining for automated early detection of psychosocial risk factors by examining health check free-text documentation, which may indicate medical statements recommending early retirement, prolonged sick leave or rehabilitation. Psychosocial risk factors were extracted from OHN documentation in a nationwide occupational health care registry. Methods Analysis of health check documentation and medical statements regarding pension, sick leave and rehabilitation. Annotations of 13 psychosocial factors based on the Prima-EF standard (PAS 1010) were used with a combination of unsupervised machine learning, a docume...
Scandinavian Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation, 1993
Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy have a great potential both for clinical cardiac diag... more Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy have a great potential both for clinical cardiac diagnostics and for research in cardiac physiology, metabolism and disease. At the present time, cardiac MRI already is the method of choice in several clinical conditions, especially in imaging central vasculature and intra- and paracardiac masses. With the recent development of contrast agents and ability to measure both flow velocities and flow volume, the cardiac MRI is likely to have a profound role in evaluating coronary arterial disease as well as valvular heart disease. The limitations due to long imaging times of cardiac MRI-studies are likely to be overcome with the development of ultrafast imaging techniques in the near future. On the other hand, cardiac MRS is still a research tool, which needs technical improvements before it can be widely utilized in clinical work. However, attempts to this aim are highly justified, when the possibility that MRS will provide metabolic information of the heart is considered and bearing in mind, that MR-magnets with sufficient field strength for MRS are increasingly in use in most modern hospitals. The role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) in the evaluation of heart diseases is still evolving. Some clear indications for clinical use of cardiac MRI have already become apparent, whereas cardiac MRS is still confined to research applications. The current paper consists of a review of the role of MRI for cardiovascular diagnosis together with a review of the currents status of cardiac MRS.
Abstract 1. 1. The metabolism of testosterone by the homogenate, microsomal and soluble fractions... more Abstract 1. 1. The metabolism of testosterone by the homogenate, microsomal and soluble fractions of human, rabbit and rat kidneys was investigated. Human kidneys were obtained from patients who underwent surgery for cancer, and the metabolism of testosterone was investigated using the intact part and in some cases also the cancerous part. 2. 2. Testosterone was metabolized by the homogenate and microsomal preparation of male and female human and male rat kidneys to androstenedione (4-androstene-3,17-dione) and to a lesser extent to monohydroxymonoketosteroids, dihydroxysteroids and to more polar metabolites. The main metabolites in the soluble fraction were dihydroxysteroids of the 5β-series. 3. 3. The rabbit kidneys differed from human and rat kidneys by showing a much greater rate of testosterone metabolism and by producing epitestosterone—via androstenedione—as a major metabolite. The formation of epitestosterone was especially marked in the homogenate of rabbit kidney.
Increased carotid artery wall thickness and lipoprotein oxidation are key early events in atheros... more Increased carotid artery wall thickness and lipoprotein oxidation are key early events in atherosclerosis. To test the hypothesis that reduced myocardial flow reserve is a marker of subclinical atherosclerosis, we examined the relationships between flow reserve and carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) in young men free from coronary heart disease. Basal and dipyridamole stimulated coronary blood flow was measured using positron emission tomography (PET) in 55 healthy men aged 36 9 4 years. Myocardial flow reserve was calculated as the ratio of stimulated flow to basal flow. The mean carotid artery IMT was measured using high-resolution ultrasound. Oxidised LDL was measured as baseline LDL diene conjugation. Myocardial flow reserve decreased across the quartiles of increasing IMT (P =0.006), and was 5.2 9 1.9 in the lowest quartile for IMT and 3.7 9 1.2 in the highest (P =0.04, I vs. IV quartile). In univariate analysis, oxidised LDL correlated inversely with flow reserve (r= −0.35, P= 0.01) and directly with IMT (r=0.51, PB0.001). The association between flow reserve and IMT remained significant (P50.01) in multivariate regression model including age, blood pressure, left ventricular mass, ox-LDL, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides as covariates. These data support the concept that reduced myocardial flow reserve reflects subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic subjects, and suggest that increased lipoprotein oxidation is directly related to early structural and functional atherosclerotic vascular changes.
European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation, 2009
The purpose of this randomized controlled cross-over study was to determine the acute effects of ... more The purpose of this randomized controlled cross-over study was to determine the acute effects of high doses of alcoholic beverages on circulating markers related to atherosclerosis and fibrinolysis. Twenty-two healthy men consumed a high dose (8.1+/-0.9 dl) of alcohol-containing red wine and dealcoholized red wine, and an equal ethanol dose of cognac (2.4+/-0.3 dl). Blood samples were taken before and shortly after interventions. Red wine, unlike dealcoholized red wine and cognac, increased tissue plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 levels significantly, indicating an acute inhibition of fibrinolysis after a high dose. Findings may explain the increased risk of cardiovascular mortality among binge drinkers.
Research communications in chemical pathology and pharmacology, 1976
The fate of intratracheally installed 3H-benzo(a)pyrene in the isolated perfused rat lung of both... more The fate of intratracheally installed 3H-benzo(a)pyrene in the isolated perfused rat lung of both control and 20-methylcholanthrene pretreated rats and in perfusion fluid was studied. The covalent binding of benzo(a)pyrene metabolites in the lung tissue itself was greatly enhanced by 20-methylcholanthrene pretreatment of rats. Similarly, the appearance of unchanged 3H-benzo(a)pyrene in the perfusion fluid of 20-methylcholanthrene-lung was decreased as compared to control lung perfusion. This was accompanied with the increase of water-soluble metabolites of benzo(a)-pyrene in the perfusion fluid of 20-methylcholanthrene-lung. When analyzing the metabolite profile of benzo(a)-pyrene in the lungs, especially the phenols (7-fold) and 9,10-diols (5-fold) were found to be increased.
INTRODUCTION In occupational health checks the information about psychosocial risk factors, which... more INTRODUCTION In occupational health checks the information about psychosocial risk factors, which influence work ability, is documented in free text. Early detection of psychosocial risk factors helps occupational health care to choose the right and targeted interventions to maintain work capacity. In this study the aim was to evaluate if we can automate the recognition of these psychosocial risk factors in occupational health check electronic records with natural language processing (NLP). MATERIALS AND METHODS We compared supervised and unsupervised named entity recognition (NER) to detect psychosocial risk factors from health checks' documentation. Occupational health nurses have done these records. RESULTS Both methods found over 60% of psychosocial risk factors from the records. However, the combination of BERT-NER (supervised NER) and QExp (query expansion/paraphrasing) seems to be more suitable. In both methods the most (correct) risk factors were found in the work environment and equipment category. CONCLUSION This study showed that it was possible to detect risk factors automatically from free-text documentation of health checks. It is possible to develop a text mining tool to automate the detection of psychosocial risk factors at an early stage.
Extracellular ATP and ADP regulate diverse inflammatory, prothrombotic and vasoactive responses i... more Extracellular ATP and ADP regulate diverse inflammatory, prothrombotic and vasoactive responses in the vasculature. Statins have been shown to modulate their signaling pathways in vitro. We hypothesized that altered intravascular nucleotide turnover modulates vasodilation in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1DM), and this can be partly restored with pravastatin therapy. In this randomized double blind study, plasma ATP and ADP levels and echocardiography-derived coronary flow velocity response to cold pressor test (CPT) were concurrently assessed in 42 normocholesterolemic patients with T1DM (age 30 ± 6 years, LDL cholesterol 2.5 ± 0.6 mmol/L) before and after four-month treatment with pravastatin 40 mg/day or placebo (n = 22 and n = 20, respectively), and in 41 healthy control subjects. Compared to controls, T1DM patients had significantly higher concentrations of ATP (p < 0.01) and ADP (p < 0.01) and these levels were partly restored after treatment with pravastatin (p = 0.00...
BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 1993
Objective To assess the effectiveness of second trimester 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure measu... more Objective To assess the effectiveness of second trimester 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure measurement as a screening test for pre-eclampsia. Design Prospective interventional study.
Background: Red wine consumption may influence on vasoconstrictive peptide endothelin-1 levels, a... more Background: Red wine consumption may influence on vasoconstrictive peptide endothelin-1 levels, and this may be one mechanism leading to improved vasodilation after red wine consumption. Endothelin-1 levels and their association with coronary epicardial diameter and flow rate, however, have not been studied in vivo after consumption of red wine and de-alcoholized red wine. The purpose of this randomized trial was to determine the acute effects of these beverages on endothelin-1 levels and compare them to coronary artery epicardial diameter and flow rate. Methods: Twenty-two healthy men consumed a high dose (8.1 ± 0.9 dL) of alcohol-containing red wine and de-alcoholized red wine in a cross-over design at one sitting with a two-week washout period. Endothelin-1 levels were determined and coronary artery diameter and flow rate assessed using transthoracic echocardiography before and acutely after intervention. Results: Red wine and de-alcoholized red wine significantly decreased endothelin-1 levels (0.75 ± 0.26 pg/mL to 0.61 ± 0.20 pg/mL, p = 0.002; 0.74 ± 0.32 pg/mL to 0.63 ± 0.24 pg/mL, p = 0.04, respectively), but did not have a significant effect on epicardial diameter (1.1 ± 0.3 mm vs. 1.1 ± 0.3 mm, p = 0.58; and 1.1 ± 0.3 mm vs. 1.1 ± 0.2 mm, p = 0.10, respectively) or flow rate (7.8 ± 4.0 mL/min to 6.4 ± 3.6 mL/min, p = 0.07; and 7.8 ± 4.0 mL/min to 7.4 ± 3.2 mL/min, p = 0.53, respectively). Conclusions: Red wine and de-alcoholized red wine decreased plasma endothelin-1 levels after acute consumption, but this change was not reflected in coronary epicardial diameters or flow rate.
The effects of nicotine and carbon monoxide on the production of PGI2 by rat arterial rings were ... more The effects of nicotine and carbon monoxide on the production of PGI2 by rat arterial rings were studied. For PGI2 analysis, we used a bioassay based on platelet-rich plasma aggregation with ADP. Neither nicotine in the incubate nor pretreatment with carbon monoxide decreased PGI2-production as detectable in this bioassay system. Also, neither had a direct effect on the ADP-induced aggregability of human platelet-rich plasma. Consequently, these agents do not seem to be responsible for the temporary increase in platelet aggregability after cigarette smoking.
International journal of occupational medicine and environmental health, 1996
Sea pilots have been reported to form an occupational population with high risk for coronary arte... more Sea pilots have been reported to form an occupational population with high risk for coronary artery diseases. In the present study the cardiovascular risk factors were studied by laboratory and bicycle-exercise tests among 135 Finnish sea pilots above 45 years of age. The most common risk factors were: elevated blood cholesterol, low physical activity and elevated blood pressure. Most sea pilots had 2-3 separate risk factors, only three of them did not have any risk factor for coronary disease, one had as many as eight. Abnormal bicycle-exercise ECG-findings were seen in 15 pilots, four of them with suspected coronary artery disease. There were no differences in laboratory results between those with normal or abnormal exercise-ECG-findings. Sea pilots had lower blood pressure, cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol values than the male population on shore. The prevalence of risk factors among sea pilots was compared with data on risk factors among the Finnish male population of the same ag...
Scandinavian journal of clinical and laboratory investigation, 1993
Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy have a great potential both for clinical cardiac diag... more Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy have a great potential both for clinical cardiac diagnostics and for research in cardiac physiology, metabolism and disease. At the present time, cardiac MRI already is the method of choice in several clinical conditions, especially in imaging central vasculature and intra- and paracardiac masses. With the recent development of contrast agents and ability to measure both flow velocities and flow volume, the cardiac MRI is likely to have a profound role in evaluating coronary arterial disease as well as valvular heart disease. The limitations due to long imaging times of cardiac MRI-studies are likely to be overcome with the development of ultrafast imaging techniques in the near future. On the other hand, cardiac MRS is still a research tool, which needs technical improvements before it can be widely utilized in clinical work. However, attempts to this aim are highly justified, when the possibility that MRS will provide metabolic informati...
Perfusion effluent from isolated rat and hamster lungs caused a relaxation of superfused strip of... more Perfusion effluent from isolated rat and hamster lungs caused a relaxation of superfused strip of bovine coronary artery (BCA). This relaxation was abolished by pulmonary infusion of indomethacin. Pre-The present study indicates that neither cigarette smoke ventilation nor pre-exposure to cigarette smoke has a drastic effect on the metab-01 ism of arachidonic acid to myotropic compounds in isolated hamster and rat lungs.
T1 relaxation times of PCr and p-ATP in human cardiac and skeletal muscle were evaluated using a ... more T1 relaxation times of PCr and p-ATP in human cardiac and skeletal muscle were evaluated using a variable nutation method. This allows T, measurements with a constant TR and a significant reduction in acquisition time compared with the partial saturation method. Four 1 D CSI datasets were obtained using 30", 45",60", and 90" BIR-4 adiabatic RF pulses within 40 min. The T1 of the phosphate phantom obtained with this method agreed with values obtained with the partial saturation method. The Tls of PCr and p-ATP in heart are 3.98 t 0.18 s and 1.86 t 0.16 s (mean t SE). Our results demonstrated that Tl values in heart and skeletal muscle are not significantly different.
Until now, transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) has had the capability to visualize only the prox... more Until now, transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) has had the capability to visualize only the proximal portions of the main coronary arteries. However, we noticed that transthoracic color Doppler echocardiography has marked potential to visualize flow in the coronary arteries. In clinical cases we tested whether this method is useful for visualizing stenoses and flow even in peripheral branches of the coronaries. This article presents two illustrative clinical cases. In our experience, transthoracic color Doppler echocardiography is very suitable for clinical use.
Background Psychosocial risk factors influence early retirement and absence from work. Health che... more Background Psychosocial risk factors influence early retirement and absence from work. Health checks by occupational health nurses (OHNs) may prevent deterioration of work ability. Health checks are documented electronically mostly as free text, and therefore the effect of psychological risk factors on working capacity is difficult to detect. Aims To evaluate the potential of text mining for automated early detection of psychosocial risk factors by examining health check free-text documentation, which may indicate medical statements recommending early retirement, prolonged sick leave or rehabilitation. Psychosocial risk factors were extracted from OHN documentation in a nationwide occupational health care registry. Methods Analysis of health check documentation and medical statements regarding pension, sick leave and rehabilitation. Annotations of 13 psychosocial factors based on the Prima-EF standard (PAS 1010) were used with a combination of unsupervised machine learning, a docume...
Scandinavian Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation, 1993
Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy have a great potential both for clinical cardiac diag... more Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy have a great potential both for clinical cardiac diagnostics and for research in cardiac physiology, metabolism and disease. At the present time, cardiac MRI already is the method of choice in several clinical conditions, especially in imaging central vasculature and intra- and paracardiac masses. With the recent development of contrast agents and ability to measure both flow velocities and flow volume, the cardiac MRI is likely to have a profound role in evaluating coronary arterial disease as well as valvular heart disease. The limitations due to long imaging times of cardiac MRI-studies are likely to be overcome with the development of ultrafast imaging techniques in the near future. On the other hand, cardiac MRS is still a research tool, which needs technical improvements before it can be widely utilized in clinical work. However, attempts to this aim are highly justified, when the possibility that MRS will provide metabolic information of the heart is considered and bearing in mind, that MR-magnets with sufficient field strength for MRS are increasingly in use in most modern hospitals. The role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy (MRS) in the evaluation of heart diseases is still evolving. Some clear indications for clinical use of cardiac MRI have already become apparent, whereas cardiac MRS is still confined to research applications. The current paper consists of a review of the role of MRI for cardiovascular diagnosis together with a review of the currents status of cardiac MRS.
Abstract 1. 1. The metabolism of testosterone by the homogenate, microsomal and soluble fractions... more Abstract 1. 1. The metabolism of testosterone by the homogenate, microsomal and soluble fractions of human, rabbit and rat kidneys was investigated. Human kidneys were obtained from patients who underwent surgery for cancer, and the metabolism of testosterone was investigated using the intact part and in some cases also the cancerous part. 2. 2. Testosterone was metabolized by the homogenate and microsomal preparation of male and female human and male rat kidneys to androstenedione (4-androstene-3,17-dione) and to a lesser extent to monohydroxymonoketosteroids, dihydroxysteroids and to more polar metabolites. The main metabolites in the soluble fraction were dihydroxysteroids of the 5β-series. 3. 3. The rabbit kidneys differed from human and rat kidneys by showing a much greater rate of testosterone metabolism and by producing epitestosterone—via androstenedione—as a major metabolite. The formation of epitestosterone was especially marked in the homogenate of rabbit kidney.
Increased carotid artery wall thickness and lipoprotein oxidation are key early events in atheros... more Increased carotid artery wall thickness and lipoprotein oxidation are key early events in atherosclerosis. To test the hypothesis that reduced myocardial flow reserve is a marker of subclinical atherosclerosis, we examined the relationships between flow reserve and carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) in young men free from coronary heart disease. Basal and dipyridamole stimulated coronary blood flow was measured using positron emission tomography (PET) in 55 healthy men aged 36 9 4 years. Myocardial flow reserve was calculated as the ratio of stimulated flow to basal flow. The mean carotid artery IMT was measured using high-resolution ultrasound. Oxidised LDL was measured as baseline LDL diene conjugation. Myocardial flow reserve decreased across the quartiles of increasing IMT (P =0.006), and was 5.2 9 1.9 in the lowest quartile for IMT and 3.7 9 1.2 in the highest (P =0.04, I vs. IV quartile). In univariate analysis, oxidised LDL correlated inversely with flow reserve (r= −0.35, P= 0.01) and directly with IMT (r=0.51, PB0.001). The association between flow reserve and IMT remained significant (P50.01) in multivariate regression model including age, blood pressure, left ventricular mass, ox-LDL, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides as covariates. These data support the concept that reduced myocardial flow reserve reflects subclinical atherosclerosis in asymptomatic subjects, and suggest that increased lipoprotein oxidation is directly related to early structural and functional atherosclerotic vascular changes.
European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation, 2009
The purpose of this randomized controlled cross-over study was to determine the acute effects of ... more The purpose of this randomized controlled cross-over study was to determine the acute effects of high doses of alcoholic beverages on circulating markers related to atherosclerosis and fibrinolysis. Twenty-two healthy men consumed a high dose (8.1+/-0.9 dl) of alcohol-containing red wine and dealcoholized red wine, and an equal ethanol dose of cognac (2.4+/-0.3 dl). Blood samples were taken before and shortly after interventions. Red wine, unlike dealcoholized red wine and cognac, increased tissue plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 levels significantly, indicating an acute inhibition of fibrinolysis after a high dose. Findings may explain the increased risk of cardiovascular mortality among binge drinkers.
Research communications in chemical pathology and pharmacology, 1976
The fate of intratracheally installed 3H-benzo(a)pyrene in the isolated perfused rat lung of both... more The fate of intratracheally installed 3H-benzo(a)pyrene in the isolated perfused rat lung of both control and 20-methylcholanthrene pretreated rats and in perfusion fluid was studied. The covalent binding of benzo(a)pyrene metabolites in the lung tissue itself was greatly enhanced by 20-methylcholanthrene pretreatment of rats. Similarly, the appearance of unchanged 3H-benzo(a)pyrene in the perfusion fluid of 20-methylcholanthrene-lung was decreased as compared to control lung perfusion. This was accompanied with the increase of water-soluble metabolites of benzo(a)-pyrene in the perfusion fluid of 20-methylcholanthrene-lung. When analyzing the metabolite profile of benzo(a)-pyrene in the lungs, especially the phenols (7-fold) and 9,10-diols (5-fold) were found to be increased.
INTRODUCTION In occupational health checks the information about psychosocial risk factors, which... more INTRODUCTION In occupational health checks the information about psychosocial risk factors, which influence work ability, is documented in free text. Early detection of psychosocial risk factors helps occupational health care to choose the right and targeted interventions to maintain work capacity. In this study the aim was to evaluate if we can automate the recognition of these psychosocial risk factors in occupational health check electronic records with natural language processing (NLP). MATERIALS AND METHODS We compared supervised and unsupervised named entity recognition (NER) to detect psychosocial risk factors from health checks' documentation. Occupational health nurses have done these records. RESULTS Both methods found over 60% of psychosocial risk factors from the records. However, the combination of BERT-NER (supervised NER) and QExp (query expansion/paraphrasing) seems to be more suitable. In both methods the most (correct) risk factors were found in the work environment and equipment category. CONCLUSION This study showed that it was possible to detect risk factors automatically from free-text documentation of health checks. It is possible to develop a text mining tool to automate the detection of psychosocial risk factors at an early stage.
Extracellular ATP and ADP regulate diverse inflammatory, prothrombotic and vasoactive responses i... more Extracellular ATP and ADP regulate diverse inflammatory, prothrombotic and vasoactive responses in the vasculature. Statins have been shown to modulate their signaling pathways in vitro. We hypothesized that altered intravascular nucleotide turnover modulates vasodilation in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1DM), and this can be partly restored with pravastatin therapy. In this randomized double blind study, plasma ATP and ADP levels and echocardiography-derived coronary flow velocity response to cold pressor test (CPT) were concurrently assessed in 42 normocholesterolemic patients with T1DM (age 30 ± 6 years, LDL cholesterol 2.5 ± 0.6 mmol/L) before and after four-month treatment with pravastatin 40 mg/day or placebo (n = 22 and n = 20, respectively), and in 41 healthy control subjects. Compared to controls, T1DM patients had significantly higher concentrations of ATP (p < 0.01) and ADP (p < 0.01) and these levels were partly restored after treatment with pravastatin (p = 0.00...
BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 1993
Objective To assess the effectiveness of second trimester 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure measu... more Objective To assess the effectiveness of second trimester 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure measurement as a screening test for pre-eclampsia. Design Prospective interventional study.
Background: Red wine consumption may influence on vasoconstrictive peptide endothelin-1 levels, a... more Background: Red wine consumption may influence on vasoconstrictive peptide endothelin-1 levels, and this may be one mechanism leading to improved vasodilation after red wine consumption. Endothelin-1 levels and their association with coronary epicardial diameter and flow rate, however, have not been studied in vivo after consumption of red wine and de-alcoholized red wine. The purpose of this randomized trial was to determine the acute effects of these beverages on endothelin-1 levels and compare them to coronary artery epicardial diameter and flow rate. Methods: Twenty-two healthy men consumed a high dose (8.1 ± 0.9 dL) of alcohol-containing red wine and de-alcoholized red wine in a cross-over design at one sitting with a two-week washout period. Endothelin-1 levels were determined and coronary artery diameter and flow rate assessed using transthoracic echocardiography before and acutely after intervention. Results: Red wine and de-alcoholized red wine significantly decreased endothelin-1 levels (0.75 ± 0.26 pg/mL to 0.61 ± 0.20 pg/mL, p = 0.002; 0.74 ± 0.32 pg/mL to 0.63 ± 0.24 pg/mL, p = 0.04, respectively), but did not have a significant effect on epicardial diameter (1.1 ± 0.3 mm vs. 1.1 ± 0.3 mm, p = 0.58; and 1.1 ± 0.3 mm vs. 1.1 ± 0.2 mm, p = 0.10, respectively) or flow rate (7.8 ± 4.0 mL/min to 6.4 ± 3.6 mL/min, p = 0.07; and 7.8 ± 4.0 mL/min to 7.4 ± 3.2 mL/min, p = 0.53, respectively). Conclusions: Red wine and de-alcoholized red wine decreased plasma endothelin-1 levels after acute consumption, but this change was not reflected in coronary epicardial diameters or flow rate.
The effects of nicotine and carbon monoxide on the production of PGI2 by rat arterial rings were ... more The effects of nicotine and carbon monoxide on the production of PGI2 by rat arterial rings were studied. For PGI2 analysis, we used a bioassay based on platelet-rich plasma aggregation with ADP. Neither nicotine in the incubate nor pretreatment with carbon monoxide decreased PGI2-production as detectable in this bioassay system. Also, neither had a direct effect on the ADP-induced aggregability of human platelet-rich plasma. Consequently, these agents do not seem to be responsible for the temporary increase in platelet aggregability after cigarette smoking.
International journal of occupational medicine and environmental health, 1996
Sea pilots have been reported to form an occupational population with high risk for coronary arte... more Sea pilots have been reported to form an occupational population with high risk for coronary artery diseases. In the present study the cardiovascular risk factors were studied by laboratory and bicycle-exercise tests among 135 Finnish sea pilots above 45 years of age. The most common risk factors were: elevated blood cholesterol, low physical activity and elevated blood pressure. Most sea pilots had 2-3 separate risk factors, only three of them did not have any risk factor for coronary disease, one had as many as eight. Abnormal bicycle-exercise ECG-findings were seen in 15 pilots, four of them with suspected coronary artery disease. There were no differences in laboratory results between those with normal or abnormal exercise-ECG-findings. Sea pilots had lower blood pressure, cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol values than the male population on shore. The prevalence of risk factors among sea pilots was compared with data on risk factors among the Finnish male population of the same ag...
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