High-resolution electrocardiography in the diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy in Boxer dogs

Com o objetivo de avaliar a importância da eletrocardiografia de alta resolução no diagnóstico da cardiomiopatia arritmogênica do ventrículo direito do Boxer, 20 cães sem evidências de doença cardíaca estrutural à avaliação ecodopplercardiográfica foram agrupados de acordo com a frequência de arritmias ventriculares, avaliadas pela eletrocardiografia ambulatorial de 24 horas, e submetidos ao exame eletrocardiográfico de alta resolução. Duração do complexo QRS filtrado, duração dos sinais de baixa amplitude (menor que 40µV) dos últimos 40 milissegundos do complexo QRS e raiz quadrada média da voltagem ao quadrado dos últimos 40 milissegundos do complexo QRS (RMS40) foram as variáveis avaliadas. Não foram observadas diferenças significativas entre os grupos em relação às variáveis estudadas. Sendo assim, os resultados do presente estudo sugerem que a eletrocardiografia de alta resolução não é uma ferramenta útil no auxílio diagnóstico da cardiomiopatia arritmogênica do ventrículo direito dos cães da raça Boxer que não apresentam alterações miocárdicas evidentes ou disfunção sistólica.

Satellyptus: analysis and database of microsatellites from ESTs of Eucalyptus

The main goal of our research was to search for SSRs in the Eucalyptus EST FORESTs database (using a software for mining SSR-motifs). With this objective, we created a database for cataloging Eucalyptus EST-derived SSRs, and developed a bioinformatics tool, named Satellyptus, for finding and analyzing microsatellites in the Eucalyptus EST database. The search for microsatellites in the FORESTs database containing 71,115 Eucalyptus EST sequences (52.09 Mb) revealed 20,530 SSRs in 15,621 ESTs. The SSR abundance detected on the Eucalyptus ESTs database (29% or one microsatellite every four sequences) is considered very high for plants. Amongst the categories of SSR motifs, the dimeric (37%) and trimeric ones (33%) predominated. The AG/CT motif was the most frequent (35.15%) followed by the trimeric CCG/CGG (12.81%). From a random sample of 1,217 sequences, 343 microsatellites in 265 SSR-containing sequences were identified. Approximately 48% of these ESTs containing microsatellites were homologous to proteins with known biological function. Most of the microsatellites detected in Eucalyptus ESTs were positioned at either the 5 or 3 end. Our next priority involves the design of flanking primers for codominant SSR loci, which could lead to the development of a set of microsatellite-based markers suitable for marker-assisted Eucalyptus breeding programs.

Heart failure due to right ventricular metastatic neuroendocrine tumor

We report a case of a female patient that was referred to our service with progressive weakness and dyspnea. Three years ago, she had been submitted to hysterectomy and salpingo-oforectomy followed by adjuvant radiotherapy due to uterine cervix neuroendocrine tumor. Two-dimensional echocardiography showed a dense sessile mass in the right ventricle causing right and left ventricular filling restriction. Despite chemotherapy the patient died and necropsy confirmed metastases from neuroendocrine tumor to the right ventricle. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Predictors of Right Ventricle Dysfunction After Anterior Myocardial Infarction

Background: Regardless significant therapeutic advances, mortality and morbidity after myocardial infarction (MI) are still high. For a long time, the importance of right ventricle (RV) function has been neglected. Recently, RV dysfunction has also been associated with poor outcomes in the setting of heart failure. The shape, location, and contraction conditions make the RV chamber assessment technically challenging.Methods: Our study identified clinical characteristics and left ventricle (LV) echocardiographic data performed 3-5 days after MI that could be associated with RV dysfunction (RV fractional area change [FAC] < 35%) 6 months after MI.Results: The RV dysfunction group consisted of 11 patients (RV FAC 29.4% +/- 5.2) and the no RV dysfunction group of 71 patients (RV FAC 43.7% +/- 5.1); (P < 0.001). Both groups presented the same baseline clinical characteristics. Left atrium (LA), interventricular septum (IVS), and left ventricular posterior wall (LVPW) were larger in RV dysfunction than in no RV dysfunction. Conversely, E wave deceleration time (EDT) was lower in RV dysfunction when compared with no RV dysfunction. Left atrium(adj) (adjusted by gender, age, infarct size, and body mass index) (odds ratio [OR], 1.22; confidence interval [CI], 1.016-1.47; P = 0.032), interventricular septum(adj) (OR, 1.49; CI, 1.01-2.23; P = 0.044), and E wave deceleration time(adj) (OR, 0.98; CI, 0.97-0.98; P = 0.029) assessed soon after MI predicted RV failure after 6-months.Conclusions: LV diastolic dysfunction, resulting from anterior MI and assessed 3-5 days after the event, may play an important role in predicting RV dysfunction 6 months later.

Cardiac hemangioma of the right atrium

Primary cardiac tumors are rare, with an incidence range between 0.001% and 0.030% at autopsy. Recent technical advances have facilitated diagnosis and surgical treatment of such lesions. Patients with a resectable tumor usually have a good prognosis, but patients with an unresectable tumor may have a poor prognosis. This report shows a case of right atrial hemangioma growing like an extracardiac mass, with cardiac tamponade the only clinical presentation.

Kinematic analysis of Labrador Retrievers and Rottweilers trotting on a treadmill

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Right-sided laryngeal hemiplegia and Horner's syndrome in a horse

This study describes right laryngeal hemiplegia (LH) and right-sided Horner's syndrome (HS) in a horse. The average temperature of the face was 3.5 degrees C higher on the right compared with the left side, as determined by thermographic imaging. The syndrome occurred following an episode of right mid-cervical cellulitis due to inadvertent perijugular deposition of gentamicin.

Hemodynamic evaluation of the right portal vein in healthy dogs of different body weights

Background: Doppler ultrasonography is an important tool for evaluating hepatic portal hemodynamics. However, no study in dogs of different body weights, in the range encountered in routine clinical veterinary practice, has been reported. It can be difficult to obtain an ideal insonation angle when evaluating the main portal vein, so evaluation of the right portal vein branch has been described in humans as an alternative. The aim of this study was to analyze, through Doppler ultrasonography, the hemodynamics in the right portal vein branch in dogs of different body weights.Methods: Thirty normal dogs were divided in three groups by weight, in order to establish normal values for mean velocity, flow volume and portal congestion index of the right portal vein branch by means of Doppler ultrasonography.Results: In all dogs ideal insonation angles were obtained for the right portal vein branch. The average velocity was similar in the three groups, but the portal congestion index and the flow volume differed, showing that the weight of the dog can influence these values.Conclusion: Doppler ultrasonography for the evaluation of flow in the right branch of the portal vein could be a viable alternative, or complement, to examining the main vessel segment. This is especially so in those animals in which an ideal insonation angle for examination of the main portal vein is hard to obtain. In addition, the weight of the dog must be considered for the correct evaluation of the portal system hemodynamics, particularly for portal blood flow and the congestion index.

Right atrial stretch alters fore- and hind-brain expression of c-fos and inhibits the rapid onset of salt appetite

The inflation of an intravascular balloon positioned at the superior vena cava and right atrial junction (SVC-RAJ) reduces sodium or water intake induced by various experimental procedures (e.g. sodium depletion; hypovolaemia). In the present study we investigated if the stretch induced by a balloon at this site inhibits a rapid onset salt appetite, and if this procedure modifies the pattern of immunohistochemical labelling for Fos protein (Fos-ir) in the brain. Male Sprague-Dawley rats with SVC-RAJ balloons received a combined treatment of furosemide (Furo; 10 mg (kg bw)(-1)) plus a low dose of the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor captopril (Cap; 5 mg (kg bw)(-1)). Balloon inflation greatly decreased the intake of 0.3 M NaCl for as long as the balloon was inflated. Balloon inflation over a 3 h period following Furo-Cap treatment decreased Fos-ir in the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis and the subfornical organ and increased Fos-ir in the lateral parabrachial nucleus and caudal ventrolateral medulla. The effect of balloon inflation was specific for sodium intake because it did not affect the drinking of diluted sweetened condensed milk. Balloon inflation and deflation also did not acutely change mean arterial pressure. These results suggest that activity in forebrain circumventricular organs and in hindbrain putative body fluid/cardiovascular regulatory regions is affected by loading low pressure mechanoreceptors at the SVC-RAJ, a manipulation that also attenuates salt appetite.

HTRIdb: an open-access database for experimentally verified human transcriptional regulation interactions

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Negative chronotropic response to adenosine receptor stimulation in rat right atria after run training

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the potency and maximal responses (E-max) to the adenosine receptor agonists N-6-cyclopentyladenosine (CPA), N-ethylcarboxamidoadenosine (NECA) and N-6-(3-iodobenzyl)-5'-N-methylcarbaxamidoadenosine (IB-MECA) in right atria from trained rats. We also investigated the interaction between the training bradycardia and the sensitivity of the chronotropic response mediated by adenosine receptor stimulation.2. Animals were submitted to run training for 60 min, 5 days a week, over a period of 8 weeks. Mean blood pressure and heart rate were measured in conscious animals. Right atria were isolated and concentration-response curves to CPA, NECA and IB-MECA were obtained.3. A reduction in heart rate was found in trained rats, indicating that the training programme was successful in inducing physical conditioning. The three adenosine receptor agonists induced a concentration-dependent negative chronotropic response. The rank order of potency and E-max for the three adenosine receptor agonists was CPA>NECA>IB-MECA.4. Dynamic exercise for 8 weeks did not alter the E a, for CPA, NECA and IB-MECA. Similarly, the potencies of CPA and NECA were not affected by run training, whereas the potency of IB-MECA was reduced (6.10+/-0.09 vs 5.66+/-0.10 for sedentary and trained groups, respectively).5. In conclusion, run training for 8 weeks induced a desensitization of the chronotropic response to IB-MECA without changing the potency of CPA and NECA. These findings exclude the participation of adenosine receptors in the training bradycardia.

The unequal influences of the left and right vagi on the control of the heart and pulmonary artery in the rattlesnake, Crotalus durissus

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)