Following many years when a great deal of attention was directed towards the intracellular roles of purines, there is expanding interest in the field of extracellular purinergic signalling. In this book we focus on the actions of purines in cardiovascular biology, where it is clear that they play major roles in both normal and pathophysiological conditions. Activation of different purinoceptor subtypes by purines can regulate cardiac contractility and electrical activity, modulate catecholamine-mediated responses both pre- and post-junctionally, trigger and mediate ischaemic preconditioning,...

This book is timely and challenging. Within its pages are commentaries and opinions on the scientific background and explanatory ideas for a complex of symptoms and investigations known as syndrome X. The commonest cause by far of angina pectoris is coronary artery obstruction due to atheromatous lesions both within the wall of the artery and intruding into the lumen; in such patients it is expected that there maybe ST segment depression on atrial pacing or on an exercise test indicating myocardial ischemia. Syndrome X was a term first used in an editorial written by Kemp in 1973. He was...

Teleologically, the hemostatic mechanism is among The of Coronary Thrombosis and the most fundamental yet complex physiologic pro- in essence, represents a heartfelt gift of cesses in humans. Early scientists and physicians were knowledge from a dedicated group of scientists and fascinated by the blood's ability to remain in a liquid clinicians, who collectively have set out on a mission state only to clot in response to vascular injury. The to minimize the societal impact of"hemostasis in the cellular and noncellular components of normal wrong place. " The book is divided into four distinct...

Molecular Cardiology for the Cardiologist, Second Edition provides a short, easily readable summary of what the new biology brings to cardiology. Special efforts have been made to include comprehensive diagrams and drawings, as well as teaching tables, and also to keep the size of the second edition within the modest limits of the first edition.
The book remains divided into 5 parts. The first part is a general introduction to the new terminology. The second part is devoted to the normal structure of the heart and vessels. Parts 3 and 4 deal with physiopathology. One of the...

This is the first book in healthcare ethics addressing the moral issues regarding ownership of the human body. Modern medicine increasingly transforms the body and makes use of body parts for diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive purposes. The book analyzes the concept of body ownership. It also reviews the ownership issues arising in clinical care (for example, donation policies, autopsy) and biomedical research. Societies and legal systems also have to deal with issues of body ownership. A comparison is made between specific legal arrangements in The Netherlands and France, as examples of...

Although clinicians have recognized the importance of inflammatory mediators in the pathogenesis of heart disease for well over 200 years, it has taken nearly as many years for clinicians and scientists to focus on the basic biological mechanisms by which inflammatory mediators contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiac disease states. Over the past decade there has been increasing interest in the potential role that inflammatory mediators, play in a variety of cardiac disease states, including chronic heart failure.
The Role of Inflammatory Mediators in the Failing Heart...

Non-Invasive Imaging of Atherosclerosis is a primer, reference and review of some of the key features of current activities in the field of atherosclerosis. The Editors' goal is to provide material and stimulating ideas to basic scientists and clinical researchers in order to extend the application of vascular imaging and to further develop methods suitable for investigation of the arterial wall.
The first section presents current knowledge about pathology, vascular mechanics and compensatory mechanisms active during atherogenesis. It explores the early lesion, complications of...

In Heart Cell Communication in Health and Disease an extensive review of different aspects of heart cell communication is presented. The book starts with the fundamental concept that cardiac cells are communicated, and then proceeds to the role of gap junctions in heart development, the molecular biology of gap junctions, the biophysics of the intercellular channels, the control of junctional conductance and the influence of gap junctions on impulse propagation.
This is the first time that a single volume has described cell communication in the normal heart and under different...

The most salient feature of the infor last four chapters of the book evaluate the mation provided by nuclear medicine is its information from an analytical and pathophysiological and functional charac statistical point of view. This approach is ter. For adequate experimental or clinical required for correct decision-making. interpretation, such information should This book is therefore the result of necessarily be interpreted alongside the accumulated experience in nuclear cardiology views of the clinical cardiologist, who is with the invaluable cooperation of medical able to apply it to the...

ROSAT Observations G. HASINGER Max-Planck-Institut flir extraterrestrische Physik, D-85740 Garching, Germany Abstract. This review describes the most recent advances in the study of the extragalactic soft X-ray background and what we can learn about its constituents. The deepest pointed observations with the ROSAT PSPC are discussed. The logN-logS relation is presented, which reaches to the faintest X-ray fluxes and to the highest AGN surface densities ever achieved. The N(>S) relation shows a 2 density in excess of 400 deg- at the faintest fluxes and a flattening below the Einstein Deep...