Postgraduate complexity.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to U Qureshi.
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Rats transmit information to each other about which foods are safe to eat. If a rat smells a food odor on the breath of another rat, it is subsequently more likely to eat that food than an alternative. Work by Galef et al. (1988) has shown that the observer rat forms an association between two olfactory stimuli on the breath of the demonstrator rat that has eaten the food, the food odor and carbon disulphide, which is normally present in the rat breath. Bunsey and Eichenbaum (1995) claimed that the hippocampus/subicular region is required for the long-term retention of this nonspatial form of associative memory on the basis that combined lesions of the hippocampus and subiculum produced a deficit, but lesions of either structure alone did not. We report here a failure to repeat this finding. Rats with either combined lesions of the hippocampus and subiculum or with amygdala lesions were tested on their ability to remember this association either immediately (testing short-term memory) or after a 24 hr delay (testing long-term memory). Neither lesion group exhibited significant memory deficits on this nonspatial associative task at either test interval. In contrast, a deficit was observed on a spatial memory task (forced-choice alternation t-maze) for animals with combined lesions of the hippocampus and subiculum. These results contradict the findings of Bunsey and Eichenbaum (1995) and support the idea that the hippocampus/subicular region is not required for this nonspatial associative memory.
OBJECTIVES: The study assessed whether end-diastolic wall thickness (EDWT), measured with echocardiography, is an important marker of myocardial viability in patients with suspected myocardial hibernation, and it compared this index to currently established diagnostic modalities of dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) and rest-redistribution thallium-201 (T1-201) scintigraphy. BACKGROUND: Because myocardial necrosis is associated with myocardial thinning, preserved EDWT may provide a simple index of myocardial viability that is readily available from the resting echocardiogram. METHODS: Accordingly, 45 patients with stable coronary artery disease and ventricular dysfunction underwent rest 2D echocardiograms, DSE and rest-redistribution T1-201 tomography before revascularization and a repeat resting echocardiogram > or =2 months later. RESULTS: Global wall motion score index decreased from 2.38 +/- 0.73 to 1.94 +/- 0.82 after revascularization (p < 0.001). Thirty-eight percent of severely dysfunctional segments recovered resting function. Compared to segments without recovery of resting function, those with recovery had greater EDWT (0.94 +/- 0.18 cm vs. 0.67 +/- 0.22 cm, p < or = 0.0001) and a higher T1-201 uptake (78 +/- 13% vs. 59 +/- 21%; p < 0.0001). An EDWT >0.6 cm had a sensitivity of 94% and specificity of 48% for recovery of function. Similarly, a T1-201 maximal uptake of > or =60% had a sensitivity of 91% and specificity of 50%. Receiver operating characteristic curves for prediction of recovery of regional and global function were similar for EDWT and maximum T1-201 uptake. Combination of EDWT and any contractile reserve during DSE for recovery of regional function improved the specificity to 77% without a significant loss in sensitivity (88%). CONCLUSIONS: End-diastolic wall thickness is an important marker of myocardial viability in patients with suspected hibernation, and it can predict recovery of function similar to T1-201 scintigraphy. Importantly, a simple measurement of EDWT < or =0.6 cm virtually excludes the potential for recovery of function and is a valuable adjunct to DSE in the assessment of myocardial viability.
OBJECTIVES: We sought to evaluate the serial changes in the response of the hibernating myocardium to dobutamine stimulation after revascularization. BACKGROUND: An improvement in myocardial contraction during dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE), particularly a biphasic response, predicts recovery of rest function. However, little is known about the changes in the response of the myocardium to dobutamine after revascularization. METHODS: Thirty-four patients with stable coronary artery disease and regional left ventricular dysfunction underwent DSE before, early (within 1 week) and late (>6 weeks) after coronary angioplasty. Dobutamine was given in incremental doses from 2.5 to 40 microg/kg body weight per min. RESULTS: Of 180 revascularized segments with severe rest dysfunction, recovery of rest function was seen in 56 segments (31%) late after angioplasty, 80% of which had early recovery. Ventricular function during DSE was similar early and late after revascularization. Patients who showed a biphasic response to DSE before revascularization (n = 12) had the most improvement in function at rest (mean [+/-SD] wall motion score index [WMSI] 1.98 +/- 0.75 vs. 1.35 +/- 0.54, p < 0.05) and during DSE (2.11 +/- 0.67 vs. 1.21 +/- 0.41, p < 0.05) late after revascularization. Patients with sustained improvement during DSE before revascularization had no significant change in wall motion during DSE after angioplasty. However, patients without improvement in function at low dose DSE, who demonstrated worsening of function at a high dose, had significant augmentation in wall motion during DSE after revascularization (WMSI 2.16 +/- 0.50 vs. 1.60 +/- 0.57, p < 0.05). Patients who had no recovery of rest function had significant improvement in wall motion response to DSE, particularly when ischemia was inducible before revascularization. CONCLUSIONS: In myocardial hibernation, the majority of recovery of rest function occurs early after revascularization. Although patients who recover rest function show the most marked improvement in wall motion during DSE, those without recovery of rest function also have improved function during DSE, particularly when there is evidence of ischemia before revascularization.
BACKGROUND: The purposes of this study were to evaluate the comparative accuracy of dobutamine echocardiography and quantitative rest-redistribution 201Tl tomography in the prediction of recovery of function after revascularization and to assess the relation of contractile reserve to thallium uptake. METHODS AND RESULTS: Thirty-four patients with stable coronary disease and regional dysfunction underwent dobutamine echocardiography (2.5 up to 40 micrograms.kg-1.min-1) and rest-redistribution 201Tl tomography 1 day before revascularization. Resting echocardiography and scintigraphy were repeated at > or = 6 weeks. Before revascularization, resting 201Tl uptake was similar in segments demonstrating biphasic or sustained improvement and was higher than in those exhibiting no change or worsening function during dobutamine. After revascularization, 201Tl uptake increased only in segments that showed a biphasic response (from 66 +/- 12% to 78 +/- 13%; P < .05). Biphasic response had a sensitivity of 74% and specificity of 89% for prediction of recovery. The use of biphasic or sustained improvement responses increased the sensitivity to 86% with a decrease in specificity to 68%. Qualitative thallium assessment provided a high sensitivity (98%) but poor specificity (27%). Quantification of thallium uptake, however, improved its accuracy: a maximal uptake (at rest or redistribution) of > or = 60% yielded a 90% sensitivity and a 56% specificity. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with myocardial hibernation, biphasic response during dobutamine is less sensitive but more specific for recovery of function, whereas indexes of 201Tl scintigraphy are in general more sensitive and less specific, the least accurate being a qualitative assessment of thallium uptake. The sensitivity and specificity of both methods, however, can be altered depending on the quantitative criteria of thallium uptake or combination of responses of the myocardium to dobutamine.
Among 23,059 patients who underwent exercise myocardial tomography between 1985 and 1994 at our institution, there were 817 (3.5%) with a strongly positive exercise electrocardiogram and normal myocardial tomograms. Among these, 52 patients had no conditions known to be associated with a false-positive exercise electrocardiogram and no previous coronary revascularization, and underwent coronary angiography. Of the 32 patients with significant coronary stenoses, 50% had 1-vessel disease and only 22% had 3-vessel disease (p < 0.05). Among 55 stenosed arteries, 56% were of moderate severity (50 to 74%), whereas only 9% had subtotal or total occlusion (95 to 100%) (p < 0.001). There was a significant gender difference in the prevalence of significant coronary stenoses (80% in male vs 24% in female patients, p < 0.0001). A strongly positive exercise electrocardiogram coupled with normal exercise myocardial tomograms is a rare clinical finding. In women, this finding is usually associated with normal coronary arteries, whereas in men it often denotes coronary artery disease, usually of mild to moderate degree.
The finding of benign arteriolar nephrosclerosis at autopsy usually implies the prior existence of essential hypertension. It was found in this study that minor degrees of incipient nephrosclerosis in young people can be shown to correlate with seemingly trivial blood pressure elevations. In this study, autopsy tissues were used to assess the magnitude of early nephrosclerosis in five population groupings. A comparison of males in Tokyo, Japan, Guatemala, and New Orleans, La (blacks and whites); and females in Tokyo revealed significant differences among these populations. Blacks exceeded whites in New Orleans in the magnitude of incipient nephrosclerosis in all 10-year age groups from 15 through 24 years to 45 through 54 years. Guatemalan males were, on average, less affected than New Orleans whites in all age groups. The data for all males (age range, 15 through 54 years) in Tokyo revealed little difference in nephrosclerosis from those in New Orleans whites. Blood pressure data were obtained from reports of cross-sectional surveys in these five populations. Blood pressure in males varied across age x race subgroups in close parallel with nephrosclerosis (r = .90), implying that variation in blood pressure among groups of subjects is strongly nephrosclerosis linked, even at very young ages; findings for Tokyo females were aberrant in this correlation. The results suggest that the lifelong progression toward the hypertensive state begins in childhood, and that these beginnings are measurably in the population averages of both nephrosclerosis and blood pressure elevations. Moreover, population differences in these two commensurate measures of the early precursors of hypertension were found to be well established by the ages of 15 through 24 years and were sustained at least into the ages of 45 through 54 years. The years of adolescence are here brought under suspicion of special importance in setting the lifelong course toward the hypertensive state.