Features of cutaneous microcirculatory blood flow in patients with pulmonary hypertension of different etiology

Aim: to evaluate features of the functional state of microvascular bed of the skin in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension associated to congenital cardiac disease (PAH-CCD) and chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH). Methods. In study included 25 patients (41.6±15.8) with PAH-CCD, 25 patients (48.8±14.2) with CTEPH and 25 healthy volunteers (39.3±10.1 years). All the patients underwent a six-minute walking test (6-MWT), transthoracic echocardiography, thorax organs radiography, right heart catheterization (RHC) and Laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) with amplitude and frequency wavelet analysis of blood flow oscillations and evaluation of constrictory and dilatatoryskin resistive microvesselsfunctions. Results. In the PAH-CCD in relation to the CTEPH groupaccording to the RHC were noted significantly higher values of systolic pressure in pulmonary artery (93.2 and 77.8 mm Hg respectively) and venous mixted blood saturation(63 and 57% Hg respectively). On this background 6-MWT distance was 356 and 325 m, the Borg dyspnea scale index was on average 3.12 and 3.76 respectively. According to the LDF pulseoximetry PAH-CCD and CTEPH patients had 90.1 and 94.7% respectively. According to the LDF with amplitude and frequency wavelet analysis the PAH-CCD patients had significantly higher values of the amplitude of myogenic, respiratory and pulse sectionof blood flow modulation, and also increased constrictory activity smooth muscle cells of skin precapillary arterioles in response to the stretching at venous occlusion and decreased dilatatory reserve at post-occlusive reactive hyperemia. According to the LDF the CTEPH patients had elongationof time development of microvessel constriction in response to activation of sympathetic nervous systemin respiratory and cold tests. Conclusion. According to the LDF functional state of skin microvessels in systemic circulation of the CTEPH patients was comparable with control groupexcept for elongation of time development of microvessel reactions for sympathetic vasoconstrictor stimulations. The PAH-CCD patients demonstrated basal tonus decreasing of smooth muscle cells of skin precapillary arterioles in systemic circulation, which can be regarded as a manifestation of autoregulatory response to systemic hypoxia

A rare case of diagnosed absent aortic valve and severely hypoplastic pulmonary valve with double outlet right ventricle: A case report

Agenesis of the aortic and pulmonary valves is a very rare congenital malformation of the semilunar valves. The literature describes no more than thirty cases of such anomaly in combination with congenital heart disease. Most descriptions include aplasia of either the aortic or pulmonic valve. The combination of such defect in both valves has been described in a much smaller number of scientific papers.In this article, we present a clinical case of the treatment of a patient with agenesis of aortic valve and severely hypoplastic pulmonary valve. As a result circulatory arrest occurred immediately after birth, which required the implementation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The child was resuscitated and transferred to the intensive care unit for further examination and treatment

Stimulation of mouse hematopoietic stem cells by angiogenin and DNA preparations

Immature hematopoietic progenitors are a constant source for renewal of hemocyte populations and the basic component of the tissue and cell repair apparatus. A unique property of these cells of internalizing extracellular double-stranded DNA has been previously shown. The leukostimulatory effect demonstrated in our pioneering studies was considered to be due to the feature of this cell. In the present research, we have analyzed the effects of DNA genome reconstructor preparation (DNAgr), DNAmix, and human recombinant angiogenin on both hematopoietic stem cells and multipotent progenitors. Treatment with bone marrow cells of experimental mice with these preparations stimulates colony formation by hematopoietic stem cells and proliferation of multipotent descendants. The main lineage responsible for this is the granulocyte-macrophage hematopoietic lineage. Using fluorescent microscopy as well as FACS assay, co-localization of primitive c-Kit- and Sca-1-positive progenitors and the TAMRA-labeled double-stranded DNA has been shown. Human recombinant angiogenin was used as a reference agent. Cells with specific markers were quantified in intact bone marrow and colonies grown in the presence of inducers. Quantitative analysis revealed that a total of 14,000 fragment copies of 500 bp, which is 0.2% of the haploid genome, can be delivered into early progenitors. Extracellular double-stranded DNA fragments stimulated the colony formation in early hematopoietic progenitors from the bone marrow, which assumed their effect on cells in G0. The observed number of Sca1+/c-Kit+ cells in colonies testifies to the possibility of both symmetrical and asymmetrical division of the initial hematopoietic stem cell and its progeny