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(Circulation. 2005;111:2869-2871.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Particulate Pollution and Endothelial Function

Déjà Vu All Over Again in the Air

Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD; Qinghua Sun, MD, PhD; Lung Chi Chen, PhD

From the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY (S.R., Q.S.), and the Nelson Institute of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, Tuxedo, NY (L.C.C.).

Correspondence to Sanjay Rajagopalan, MD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave Levy Pl, Box 1030, New York, NY 10029. E-mail sanjay.rajagopalan@mountsinai.org

Key Words: Editorials • endothelium • nitric oxide • free radicals • myocardial infarction

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
Agrowing body of epidemiological data implicates particulate matter air pollution (PM) as yet another factor in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease.¹ PM influences susceptibility to hard events and may be particularly harmful to high-risk groups such as people with diabetes, people with hypertension, and people who smoke.² The synergistic impact of PM in diabetes mellitus is internally consistent with previous observations, demonstrating that risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and smoking may potentiate atherosclerosis. Thus, if one were to predict likely pathological mechanisms, recapitulation of some the previously well-characterized pathways through which risk factors such as smoking or diabetes modulate atherosclerosis may be equally applicable to PM-mediated atherogenicity.

See p 2913

In this issue of Circulation, O’Neill and colleagues demonstrate that antecedent 6-day moving average levels of PM were negatively associated with endothelium-dependent flow-mediated dilation and nitroglycerin-mediated dilation in 269 subjects with diabetes mellitus (type 1, n=45; type 2, n=182) or subjects at risk for developing diabetes (n=42).³ Although the results of the study represent pooled data from 4 trials, the clinical and environmental variables were merged by date to provide startling insights between variations in vasomotor tone and preceding ambient PM levels. The negative association in the type 2 diabetes population (the majority) was striking and, not surprisingly, drove the results of the study. These results are consistent with the recurring observation of impaired large-vessel endothelial function in people with type 2 diabetes.⁴ Another notable finding in the present study was the effect of PM on nitroglycerin-mediated dilation. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Diabetes Enhances Vulnerability to Particulate Air Pollution–Associated Impairment in Vascular Reactivity and Endothelial Function

Marie S. O’Neill, Aristidis Veves, Antonella Zanobetti, Jeremy A. Sarnat, Diane R. Gold, Panayiotis A. Economides, Edward S. Horton, and Joel Schwartz
Circulation 2005 111: 2913-2920. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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