Consensus guidelines for the use and interpretation of angiogenesis assays

The formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, is a complex process that plays important roles in growth and development, tissue and organ regeneration, as well as numerous pathological conditions. Angiogenesis undergoes multiple discrete steps that can be individually evaluated and quantified by a large number of bioassays. These independent assessments hold advantages but also have limitations. This article describes in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro bioassays that are available for the evaluation of angiogenesis and highlights critical aspects that are relevant for their execution and proper interpretation. As such, this collaborative work is the first edition of consensus guidelines on angiogenesis bioassays to serve for current and future reference

Predictor of poor coronary collaterals in chronic kidney disease population with significant coronary artery disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Coronary collateral circulation plays an important role to protect myocardium from ischemia, preserve myocardial contractility and reduce cardiovascular events. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with poor coronary collateral development and cardiovascular outcome. However, limited research investigates the predictors for collateral development in the CKD population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We evaluated 970 consecutive patients undergoing coronary angiography and 202 patients with CKD, defined as a glomerular filtration rate less than 60 ml/min/1.73 m², were finally analyzed. The collateral scoring system developed by Rentrop was used to classify patients into poor (grades 0 and 1) or good (grades 2 and 3) collateral group.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The patients with poor collateral (n = 122) had a higher incidence of hypertension (82% vs 63.8%, p = 0.005), fewer diseased vessels numbers (2.1 ± 0.9 vs 2.6 ± 0.6, p < 0.001) and a trend to be diabetic (56.6% vs. 43.8%, p = 0.085) or female sex (37.7% vs. 25.0%, p = 0.067). Multivariate analysis showed hypertension (odd ratio (OR) 2.672, p = 0.006), diabetes (OR 1.956, p = 0.039) and diseased vessels numbers (OR 0.402, p < 0.001) were significant predictors of poor coronary collaterals development. Furthermore, hypertension and diabetes have a negative synergistic effect on collateral development (p = 0.004 for interaction).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In the CKD population hypertension and diabetes might negatively influence the coronary collaterals development.</p