Coronary microvascular dysfunction by positron emission tomography and outcomes in patients after cardiac transplantation.

Aims: Cardiac allograft vasculopathy (CAV) affects both epicardial and microvascular coronary arteries, however, few studies have characterized microvascular dysfunction in this population. Several prior studies have shown that positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) can be used to screen for epicardial CAV, however, the clinical implications of abnormal blood flow in the absence of epicardial CAV are unknown. Our study sought to assess the prognostic implications of microvascular dysfunction and its subtypes, endogen/functional and classical/structural, using PET/CT in cardiac transplant patients without epicardial CAV.

Nocturnal Hemodynamics in Somali Americans: Implications for Cardiovascular Risk.

Introduction: Cardiovascular health disparities are present within several minority communities, but it is unclear if such disparities are present in a growing African American subpopulation, Somali Americans, who differ genetically and culturally from African Americans of Western African ancestry. Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring remains a gold standard measure to examine 24-h BP patterns to stratify cardiovascular risk profile. We sought to examine differences in the 24-h BP profile in a sample of young Somali Americans and compare their BP patterns to White study participants.