Purpose Endothelial dysfunction is an early and integral event in the development of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease (CAD). Reduced NO bioavailability, oxidative stress, vasoconstriction, inflammation and senescence are all implicated in endothelial dysfunction. However, there are limited data examining associations between these pathways and direct in vivo bioassay measures of endothelial function in CAD patients....

Purpose Animal studies have shown that endothelial denudation abolishes vasodilation in response to increased shear stress. Interestingly, shear-mediated dilation has been reported to be reduced, but not abolished, in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients following catheterization. However, it is not known whether this resulted from a priori endothelial dysfunction in this diseased population. In this study, we evaluated shea...

Purpose The aim of the study was to provide an evaluation of the oxygen transport, exchange and storage capacity of elite breath-hold divers (EBHD) compared with non-divers (ND). Methods Twenty-one healthy males’ (11 EBHD; 10 ND) resting splenic volumes were assessed by ultrasound and venous blood drawn for full blood count analysis. Percutaneous skeletal muscle biopsies were obtained from the m. vastus lateralis to measure ca...