OBJECTIVES: Chronic renal disease (CRD) accelerates atherosclerosis and cardiovascular calcification. Statins reduce low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels in patients with CRD, however, the benefits of statins on cardiovascular disease in CRD remain …

Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is a common cardiac valve disease that affects nearly 1 in 40 individuals1–3. It can manifest as mitral regurgitation and is the leading indication for mitral valve surgery4,5. Despite a clear heritable component, the genetic …

An abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a potentially fatal cardiovascular disease with multifactorial development and progression. Two preclinical models of the disease (elastase perfusion and angiotensin II infusion in apolipoprotein-E-deficient animals) …

Rupture of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a lethal event. No oral medicine has been available to prevent or treat AAA. We have recently identified a novel mechanism of eNOS uncoupling by which AAA develops, in angiotensin II (Ang II) infused …

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of high intensity interval training (HIIT) on the maternal heart, fetuses and placentas of pregnant rats. METHODS: Female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to HIIT or sedentary control groups. The HIIT group …

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) knockout is associated with reduced fetal weight at late gestation; however, whether uteroplacental vascular and/or hemodynamic disturbances underlie this growth-restricted phenotype is unknown. Uterine artery …

Background . Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) using dedicated high-resolution ultrasound is a relatively new technique that is useful in assessing myocardial deformation in 3 myocardial layers in small animals. However, comparative studies of STE …

This project compared quantifiable measures of tumor vascularity obtained from contrast-enhanced high frequency (HF) and low frequency (LF) subharmonic ultrasound imaging (SHI) to 3 immunohistochemical markers of angiogenesis in a murine breast cancer …

Purpose: Ultrasound (US) molecular imaging by examining the expression\nof vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2) on uterus\nvascular endothelium was applied to evaluate the endometrial\nreceptivity.\nMethods: VEGFR2-targeted ultrasound …

The abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a silent and often deadly vascular disease caused by the localized weakening of the arterial wall. Previous work has indicated that local changes in wall stiffness can be detected with pulse wave imaging (PWI), which …