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Heart Failure Congress 2009 presentation
02 Jun 2009

Mechanisms of diastolic dysfunction. How important are endothelial factors? 

Webcasts available

Topics: Heart Failure (HF)
Session number: 1351
Session title: Endothelial regulation of cardiac function
Authors: Paulus, Walter (Amsterdam, NL)

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In patients with diastolic heart failure, there is reduced capillary density and endothelial inflammation. Both of them contribute to low myocardial NO content and low myocardial PKG activity. Low myocardial PKG activity can raise resting tension of cardiomyocytes through reduction of titin phosphorylation. Resting tension of cardiomyocytes was previously demonstrated to be an important contributor of LV stiffness. Hence, myocardial endothelial factors and especially NO can importantly modulate diastolic LV function.

Teaching objective of the lecture:

Establishing the importance of myocardial endothelium for diastolic LV function

Take home messages:

  • Conditions with high oxidative stress such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome can impair diastolic LV function through reduced myocardial NO bioavailability
  • Reduced myocardial NO bioavailability can result both from vascular rarefaction and microvascular inflammation
  • Cardiomyocyte passive tension is an important contributor to diastolic LV stiffness.

 


The content of this article reflects the personal opinion of the author/s and is not necessarily the official position of the European Society of Cardiology.