To assess the accuracy of positron emission tomography (PET) for evaluation of coronary artery disease (CAD)

The purpose of this study was to determine the clinical feasibility of diagnosing significant coronary artery disease by positron imaging of myocardial perfusion without a cyclotron, using generator-produced rubidium-82 (82Rb). Fifty patients underwent positron emission tomography of the entire heart using a multislice positron camera and intravenous 82Rb or nitrogen-13 ammonia (13NH3) before and after intravenous dipyridamole combined with handgrip stress. Images were read by two observers blinded as to clinical or arteriographic data. Automated quantitative coronary arteriography was obtained for the arteriographic determination of coronary flow reserve, previously demonstrated to be a single integrated measure of stenosis severity accounting for all its geometric dimensions of length, absolute diameter, percent narrowing and asymmetry by quantitative analysis of cine films. Significant coronary artery disease was defined as an arteriographically determined coronary flow reserve of less than 3.0 based on all stenosis dimensions. Any single geometric measure of stenosis severity alone was an inadequate reference standard for comparison with perfusion images. Sensitivity of identifying patients with coronary artery disease having an arteriographically determined coronary flow reserve of less than 3.0 was 95% by positron imaging with a specificity of 100%. The single case that was missed, studied with 13NH3, had a 43% diameter narrowing of a small ramus intermedius off the left coronary artery with no significant narrowing of the major coronary arteries. Positron emission tomography of myocardial perfusion before and after intravenous dipyridamole combined with handgrip stress utilizing generator-produced 82Rb provides sensitive and specific diagnosis of reduced coronary flow reserve due to coronary artery disease in humans.

Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSC) has been applied as the most valuable source of autologous cell transplantation for various diseases including diabetic complications. However, hyperglycemia may cause abnormalities in intrinsic BM-MSC which might lose sufficient therapeutic effects in diabetic patients. We demonstrated the functional abnormalities in BM-MSC derived from both type 1 and type 2 diabetes models in vitro, which resulted in loss of therapeutic effects in vivo in diabetic nephropathy (DN). Then, we developed a novel method to improve abnormalities in BM-MSC using human umbilical cord extracts, namely Wharton’s jelly extract supernatant (WJs). WJs is a cocktail of growth factors, extracellular matrixes and exosomes, which ameliorates proliferative capacity, motility, mitochondrial degeneration, endoplasmic reticular functions and exosome secretions in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes-derived BM-MSC (DM-MSC). Exosomes contained in WJs were a key factor for this activation, which exerted similar effects to complete WJs. DM-MSC activated by WJs ameliorated renal injury in both type 1 and type 2 DN. In this study, we developed a novel activating method using WJs to significantly increase the therapeutic effect of BM-MSC, which may allow effective autologous cell transplantation.

A new, predominantly single chain preparation of recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator was evaluated to determine coronary thrombolytic efficacy in 100 patients with acute myocardial infarction. At 3.6 +/- 1.2 hours (mean +/- SD) from symptom onset, patients received either intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (1.25 mg/kg body weight over 3 hours) or placebo on a 3:1 randomized, double-blind basis. Coronary angiography, performed 68 +/- 13 minutes after initiation of the study drug infusion, demonstrated patency of the infarct-related artery in 40 (57%) of 70 patients in the tissue plasminogen activator group compared with 3 (13%) of 23 patients in the placebo group (p less than 0.001). Patients in the placebo group were then eligible to receive intracoronary streptokinase. At 90 minutes the patency was observed in 49 (69%) of 71 tissue plasminogen activator patients compared with 5 (24%) of 21 placebo patients (p less than 0.001). At 120 minutes patency was observed in 59 (79%) of 75 patients of the tissue plasminogen activator group and in 10 (40%) of 25 in the intracoronary streptokinase/placebo group. A nadir value of less than 100 mg/dl fibrinogen occurred in 8 (11%) of 73 patients receiving tissue plasminogen activator versus 8 (40%) of 20 patients treated with intracoronary streptokinase (p = 0.002). Moderate or severe bleeding episodes occurred in 39% of patients treated with tissue plasminogen activator compared with 32% of patients who received placebo/intracoronary streptokinase (p = NS). Thus, this tissue plasminogen activator preparation achieves a high rate of recanalization and, at the doses employed, exhibits increased fibrinogen sparing compared with intracoronary streptokinase.