Nitric oxide response to acute exercise in patients with coronary artery disease

Abstract

Nitric oxide (NO) has been identified as a vasodilatory substance released from the endothelium which decreasesin the presence of atherosclerosis. This study aimed to evaluate the systemic NO response to acute exercise inuntrained diabetic and nondiabetic patients with atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD). This is aprospective, clinical study consisting of three groups. Group A (n=50) consisted of nondiabetic CADpatients,group B (n=20) consisting of diabetic, CAD patients and group C (n=20) of healthy controls. Allpatients underwent a standard symptom limited treadmill exercise test according to the modified Bruce protocolafter 24 hours low nitrite/ nitrate diet. End products of nitric oxide metabolism (NOx) were determined as thehalf life of NO is very short. Basal serum NOx levels of both diabetics (24$pm$8.4μmol/L,p