Prostaglandins and skeletal muscle glucose uptake.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to W H Hartl.
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The phospholipid/arachidonic acid second messenger system is a signaling system by which systemic regulators (hormones) and local mediators (tissue factors) control certain aspects of tissue metabolism. In vivo and in vitro evidence indicates that these effectors activate phospholipolytic enzymes in cellular membranes. The products of these enzymatic reactions (such as inositol phosphates or arachidonic acid metabolites) can serve as second messengers that can potentially influence glucose, lipid and protein metabolism at the cellular level. Alterations in this second messenger system could be involved in metabolic changes associated with some pathologic conditions as well as certain drug treatments, and thus, a better understanding of the system could reveal new possibilities for therapeutic interventions.
PURPOSE: To assess the ability of color-flow Doppler sonography (CFDS) to detect plaque ulcerations in patients who had high-grade to thread-like carotid artery stenosis and who underwent carotid endarterectomy. METHODS: CFDS is a noninvasive diagnostic technique that allows, in addition to spatial visualization of blood flow, the identification of abnormal blood flow patterns such as vortex formation. There is evidence that pathologic anatomic changes in the vascular wall (such as ulcerations) may result in characteristic hemodynamic alterations. Therefore, solely hemodynamic criteria (detection of vortices) were used to diagnose ulceration. The results of preoperative examinations were compared to the intraoperative findings in 89 patients in a prospective and blinded way. RESULTS: CFDS proved highly sensitive (95.3%), specific (93.5%), and accurate (94.0%) for demonstrating ulcerative plaques. CONCLUSION: CFDS may be of significant advantage for examining plaque morphology in patients who have high-grade internal carotid artery stenosis, and in whom accurate, noninvasive diagnosis of plaque ulceration was previously difficult, if not impossible.