Most US adults consume excess sodium. Knowledge about the dietary sources of sodium intake is critical to the development of effective reduction strategies. A total of 450 adults were recruited from 3 ...

The cardiomyopathies are heart muscle diseases of primary or secondary origin. Primary cardiomyopathies are often of unknown cause, hence their treatment is limited to general heart failure management ...

We previously demonstrated that conditional overexpression of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) inhibited L-type Ca 2+ channels and decreased myocardial contractility. However, nNOS has multiple ...

As the name atherosclerosis implies, mature plaques typically consist of two main components: soft, lipid-rich atheromatous “gruel” and hard, collagen-rich sclerotic tissue (Fig 1A). The sclerotic ...

Activation of innate pattern-recognition receptors promotes CD4 + T-cell–mediated autoimmune myocarditis and subsequent inflammatory cardiomyopathy. Mechanisms that counterregulate exaggerated ...

The choroidal vasculature, including the choriocapillaris and vortex veins, is essential for providing nutrients to the metabolically demanding photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium. Choroidal ...

The aim of this study was to identify the relative impact of adrenergic and cholinergic activity on atrial fibrillation (AF) inducibility and blood pressure (BP) in a model for obstructive sleep apnea ...

Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy characterized by systemic endothelial dysfunction. The pathophysiology of preeclampsia remains incompletely understood. This study used human ...

The Wnt/β-catenin signaling is an ancient and evolutionarily conserved pathway that regulates essential aspects of cell differentiation, proliferation, migration and polarity. Canonical Wnt/β-catenin ...

Hypertension affects over 1 billion individuals worldwide. Because the cause of hypertension is known only in a small fraction of patients, most individuals with high blood pressure are diagnosed as ...

It is unknown whether more sensitive cardiac troponin (cTn) assays maintain their clinical utility in patients with renal dysfunction. Moreover, their optimal cutoff levels in this vulnerable patient ...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, however the mechanism(s) causing AF remain poorly understood and therapy is suboptimal. The ryanodine receptor (RyR2) is the major ...