Publications (133) View all
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Article: Kardiale Auswirkungen der obstruktiven Schlafapnoe
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ABSTRACT: Schlafbezogene Atmungsstörungen und insbesondere die obstruktive Schlafapnoe sind mit kardiovaskulären Erkrankungen assoziiert. Derzeit existieren multiple pathophysiologische Erklärungsansätze, welche eine direkte Beeinflussung des kardiovaskulären Systems durch chronisch intermittierende Hypoxämie und intrathorakale Druckschwankungen vermuten lassen. Dabei sollten schlafbezogene Atmungsstörungen im Falle einer „therapieresistenten“ arteriellen Hypertonie, bei nächtlichen Herzrhythmusstörungen, aber auch bei rasch progredienter koronarer Herzerkrankung oder Rezidiven nach Kardioversion des Vorhofflimmerns differenzialdiagnostisch erwogen werden. Besondere Bedeutung kommt den aqnoeassoziierten kardiodepressiven Effekten bei herzinsuffizienten Patienten zu, sodass die Therapie der obstruktive Schlafapnoe in die entsprechenden Therapieleitlinien aufgenommen wurde. Sleep disordered breathing, especially obstructive sleep apnea, are common in cardiovascular disease. Negative hemodynamic effects are mediated by nocturnal ischemia and intrathoracal pressure swings. Therefore “therapy resistant” arterial hypertension and congestive heart failure, as well as atrial fibrillation or sleep associated bradycardia are suggestive of sleep disordered breathing. Further on, clinical course of coronary artery disease seems to be influenced by nocturnal breathing disorders. Application of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is effective in most of the patients and attenuates cardiodepressive hemodynamic effects of obstructive sleep apnea. SchlüsselworteSchlafapnoe-Koronare Herzerkrankung-Herzinsuffizienz-CPAP KeywordsSleep apnea-Coronary artery disease-Congestive heart failure-CPAPDer Internist 04/2012; 51(7):857-862. · 0.30 Impact Factor -
Article: Impact of exercise training on inflammation and platelet activation in patients with intermittent claudication.
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ABSTRACT: BACKROUND: Serum markers of inflammation and platelet activation are related to cardiovascular risk. Cardiovascular risk reduction is a major treatment goal in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD). Although current guidelines recommend supervised exercise training (SET) for PAD patients with intermittent claudication, its contribution to risk reduction remains unclear. Aim of the present study was to assess the impact of SET on inflammation and platelet activation as surrogates for cardiovascular risk. Forty patients with intermittent claudication were randomly assigned to SET on top of best medical treatment (BMT) for 6 months (SET-group) or to BMT only (BMT-group). High sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and fibrinogen as well as soluble P-selectin (sP-sel), prothrombin fragment 1+2 (F1.2) and monocyte-platelet aggregates (MPA) were determined at study entry, after 3, 6 and 12 months. While clinical improvement, reflected by an increase of walking capacity, was observed upon SET, no lasting changes of markers of inflammation and platelet activation were found within the SET-group during the training period. Compared to the BMT-group no improvements of these markers were observed in response to training at any time point (all p >0.05). Regular SET added no further anti-inflammatory effect and had no effect on platelet activation when provided on top of BMT in PAD patients with intermittent claudication.Schweizerische medizinische Wochenschrift 01/2012; 142:w13623. · 1.68 Impact Factor -
Article: Isolation and analysis of resistance gene homologues in sweetpotato
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ABSTRACT: With 2 figures and 2 tablesAbstractThe majority of functionally characterized plant disease resistance genes are of the nucleotide-binding site (NBS)-LRR gene family, encoding proteins with a central NBS domain, a carboxy-terminal leucine-rich repeat domain, and a variable N-terminal region with or without homology to the Toll interleukin 1-like receptor (TIR) domain, referred to as TIR and non-TIR resistance gene homologues (RGH), respectively. Degenerate primers designed from conserved motifs within the NBS sequence were used to amplify, clone and sequence NBS-RGH from the sweetpotato genome. Two hundred and twenty-five distinct sweetpotato NBS sequences with similarity to known RGH genes were identified. Additional 50 sweetpotato RGHs were mined from the public genomic sequence database. Thus, a total of 275 RGH sequences were obtained using both PCR-based method and data-mining approach, from which 237 were non-TIR sequences organized into 35 singletons and 35 groups after reduced to 90% nucleotide identity, and 38 were TIR sequences divided into three primary phylogenetic clades. A bias of non-TIR vs. TIR was observed not only in genomic RGH sequences, but also in expressed sequence tags-RGH sequences. A subset of sweetpotato non-TIR RGH genes contained a conserved intron within the NBS sequences. The exploration of RGH diversity enables resistance gene evolutionary study and may facilitate the isolation of new and functional alleles. These new RGH sequences provided a resource of candidate genes and molecular markers for disease resistance research in sweetpotato.Plant Breeding 09/2010; 129(5):519 - 525. · 1.60 Impact Factor -
Article: Commissioning and performance of the LHCb Silicon Tracker
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ABSTRACT: The LHCb Silicon Tracker is a silicon micro-strip detector with a sensitive area of 12 m 2 and a total of 272k readout channels. The Silicon Tracker consists of two parts that use different detector modules. The detector installation was completed by early summer 2008 and the commissioning without beam has reached its final stage, successfully overcoming most of the encountered problems. Currently, the detector has more than 99% of the channels fully functioning. Commissioning with particles has started using beam-induced events from the LHC injection tests in 2008 and 2009. These events allowed initial studies of the detector performance. Especially, the detector modules could be aligned with an accuracy of about 20 µm. Furthermore, with the first beam collisions that took place end of 2009 we could further study the performance and improve the alignment of the detector.04/2010; -
Article: Differential effect of ischaemic preconditioning on mobilisation and recruitment of haematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cells in porcine myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion.
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ABSTRACT: Effects of ischaemic preconditioning (IP) on the mobilisation and recruitment of haematopoietic (HSCs) and mesenchymal stem (MSC) cells were determined in porcine coronary occlusion/reperfusion. Thirty-three pigs underwent percutaneous occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) for 90 minutes (min), followed by 120 min reperfusion. IP was performed in 16 of the 33 pigs by two cycles of 5 min balloon occlusion/reperfusion prior to the 90 min occlusion (group IP vs. group C). Peripheral blood and myocardial tissue concentration of bone marrow origin HSCs (characterised by coexpression of CD31+, CD90+, CD45+) and MSCs (characterised by coexpression of CD44+, CD90+, CD45-) were measured by flow cytometry in the early phase of IP. Plasma/serum levels of stem cell mobilisation factors (stromal cell-derived factor-1a [SDF-1a], vascular endothelial growth factor [VEGF], tumour necrosis factor a[TNF-a] and interleukin-8 [IL-8]) were measured. IP led to a significant increase in circulating HSCs as compared with the group C (475 +/- 233 vs. 281 +/- 264 /ml, p=0.032) in the early phase of IP. In contrast, a rapid and prolonged decrease in level of circulating MSCs was observed in group IP as compared with group C (19 +/- 12 vs. 32 +/- 17 /ml, p=0.015). The recruitment of HSCs and MSCs in infarct and border zone was significantly greater in IP group, indicating a faster homing of MSCs as compared with the rate of mobilisation. Rapid increase in VEGF, TNF-a and IL-8 levels was induced by IP, which, however, was not correlated with the levels of circulating SCs. In conclusion, IP resulted in differential mobilisation and recruitment of HSCs and MSCs in the early phase of cardioprotection.Thrombosis and Haemostasis 03/2010; 104(2):376-84. · 5.04 Impact Factor
