The New England journal of medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Myocardial gene expression in dilated cardiomyopathy treated with beta-blocking agents.
Beta-blocker therapy may improve cardiac function in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. We tested the hypothesis that beta-blocker therapy produces favorable functional effects in dilated cardiomyopathy by altering the expression of myocardial genes that regulate contractility and pathologic hypertrophy. ⋯ In idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, functional improvement related to treatment with beta-blockers is associated with changes in myocardial gene expression.
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Multicenter Study
Pulmonary dead-space fraction as a risk factor for death in the acute respiratory distress syndrome.
No single pulmonary-specific variable, including the severity of hypoxemia, has been found to predict the risk of death independently when measured early in the course of the acute respiratory distress syndrome. Because an increase in the pulmonary dead-space fraction has been described in observational studies of the syndrome, we systematically measured the dead-space fraction early in the course of the illness and evaluated its potential association with the risk of death. ⋯ Increased dead-space fraction is a feature of the early phase of the acute respiratory distress syndrome. Elevated values are associated with an increased risk of death.