Browsing by Author "Tsai, Chia-Ti"

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Comparison of Home and Ambulatory Blood Pressure Measurements in Association With Preclinical Hypertensive Cardiovascular Damage
(2019-03-01)
Lin, Ting-Tse
;
Juang, Jimmy Jyh-Ming
;
Lee, Jen-Kuang
;
Tsai, Chia-Ti
;
Chen, Chen-Huan
Objective: To evaluate whether home or ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring was associated with preclinical hypertensive cardiovascular target organ damage (TOD). Methods: We enrolled participants with prehypertension and stage 1 hypertension from 11 medical centers within the Taiwan hypertension-associated cardiac disease consortium. Recordings of clinical BP measurement, ambulatory BP monitoring for 24 hours, and home BP monitoring during morning and evening were made. The measured parameters of target organ damage included left ventricular mass index (LVMI), left atrial volume index (LAVI), and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV). Results: Data were collected from 561 study participants (mean age, 65.0 +/- 10.8 years; men, 61.3%). Morning and evening home BP values were slightly higher than the daytime and nighttime ABP values (difference for systolic morning-daytime/evening-nighttime, 7.3 +/- 14.2/11.3 +/- 18.5 mm Hg, P <.001; for diastolic, 5.4 +/- 9.4/ 7.3 +/- 12.1, P <.001). Daytime ambulatory (r = 0.114), nighttime ambulatory (r = 0.130), morning home (r = 0.310), and evening home (r = 0.220) systolic BPs (SBPs) were all associated with LVMI (all P <.05). The correlation coefficient was significantly greater for the relationship between daytime home SBP and LVMI than for the relationship between ambulatory SBP and LVMI (P <.01). The goodness of fit of the association between SBP and LVMI improved by adding home daytime SBP to the other SBPs (P <.001). Similar findings were observed for LAVI, but not for PWV. Conclusion: These findings indicate that morning SBP assessed by home monitoring appears to be a better predictor than other BP measures to determine preclinical hypertensive cardiovascular damage in patients with early-stage hypertension.
Membrane translocation of small GTPase Rac1 and activation of STAT1 and STAT3 in pacing-induced sustained atrial fibrillation
(2008-09-01)
Tsai, Chia-Ti
;
Lin, Jiunn-Lee
;
Lai, Ling-Ping
;
Lin, Chih-Sheng
;
Huang, Sheoi K. Stephen
BACKGROUND Angiotensin II and its downstream mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways are involved in the pathogenesis of AF. Pro-inflammatory JAK/STAT is another downstream signaling pathway of Angiotensin II, and its status in AF remains unknown. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to characterize the status of the Janus kinase/signal transducers and activators of transcription (JAK/STAT) pathways in pacing-induced sustained atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS AF was induced by atrial pacing at 600/min in 10 adult pigs (AF group), while 10 sham-operated pigs served as the control group. RESULTS Significant structural and inflammatory changes were noted in the AF group. Atrial tissue angiotensin II level was elevated and STAT1 and STAT3 were activated in the AF group. Nuclear translocation of activated STAT3 and binding to STAT3 consensus DNA sequence were also increased in the AF group. Rac1, the molecular target of statin, which mediates the activation of STAT3 by angiotensin II, was also activated in the AF group. The tissue levels of interteukin-6, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and cardiotrophin-1 (CT-1), which are known to activate STATs through membrane gp130 and JAKs, were not increased in the AF group. Membrane gp130 and JAKs were also not activated in the AF group. CONCLUSION Activated angiotensin II/Rac1/STAT may be associated with or perhaps contribute to the structural and inflammatory changes in pacing-induced sustained trial fibrillation. It may further imply the therapeutic option of combination of angiotensin receptor blocker and statin.