Mechanical circulatory support: Α clinical and molecular approach
Journal Title: Αρχεία Ελληνικής Ιατρικής - Year 2004, Vol 21, Issue 1
Abstract
The increasing prevalence and poor prognosis of end-stage heart failure in combination with the restricted availability of donor organs necessitate the development of alternative therapeutic strategies. During the past few years, mechanical circulatory support has been widely accepted as alternative treatment for patients with severe cardiac failure. A wide range of devices are available in clinical practice, offering various levels of cardiac support, including the total artificial heart and left ventricular assist devices. Mechanical blood pumps are currently being used as a “bridge to transplantation”, as a “bridge to recovery” and for permanent support of the failing myocardium. Recent studies suggest that long-term support with a left ventricular assist device might lead to normalization of myocardial structure and function, at the cellular level, and reverse the deteriorating natural course of heart failure. In molecular terms, this process has been defined as reverse remodeling. The exact mechanism underlying this recovery is unknown. Although the future direction of mechanical circulatory support has not been clearly specified, further research will pave the way for the establishment of novel therapeutic options which not only prevent the progression of cardiac failure but also reverse the heart failure phenotype
Authors and Affiliations
A. PSILOPANAGIOTI, P. MALLARIS, I. PAPAGEORGIOU, D. DOUGENIS
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP82536
- DOI -
- Views 83
- Downloads 0
Macrocystic serous cystadenoma of the pancreas
No abstract available
Incretin-based drugs and quality of life in type 2 diabetes mellitus
No abstract available
The impact factor of scientific journals by broad category
In this paper, we firstly describe the history, the calculation, the bibliometric use and the restrictions that must be kept in mind when journals’ impact factors (IF) are used as a measure of the quality of research. S...
Model system development<br /> for correlation between histologic structure and mechanical behavior of the aorta
OBJECTIVE Τhe purpose of this study was the development of a model system for the investigation of the histological structure of the aortic wall when subjected to pre-selected levels of stress. METHOD Ten white male...
Research of quality of life in students of programmes of postgraduate studies in Public Health
OBJECTIVE This study focused on the assessment of psychological health among students in Master's Degree programs in Public Health, and of their satisfaction, symptoms of stress and ways of coping during their studies. T...