Hypertension, a Low Ejection Fraction and Severe Angiographic Findings are Associated with Smooth Muscle Dysfunction in Patients with Coronary Atherosclerosis

Background and Objectives: Nitroglycerin-mediated arterial dilation (NMD) was shown to be preserved in mostprevious studies, and this is possibly due to using a single high dose of nitroglycerin (NTG), which causes maximalarterial dilation. We sought to evaluate the clinical factors of flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and NMD atdifferent doses of NTG in the patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Subjects and Methods: Thirty-twoconsecutive patients (mean age: 61 years old, 18 males) with angiographically proven CAD underwent FMD andNMD at total cumulative doses of 25μg, 175μg and 325μg with using high-resolution ultrasound for the imaging.Results: The FMD, NMD (25μg), NMD (175μg) and NMD (325μg) were 4.72±1.82%, 7.08±3.02%,13.33±6.14% and 15.89±7.24%, respectively (p