In an attempt to clarify the situation regarding the diagnosis, pathogenesis and therapeutics of cardiovascular dysfunction in diabetes, an International Symposium on Diabetic Heart was held in Tokyo, Japan during October, 1989. Thirty-two selected articles from the poster presentations, compiled in this book, have been grouped in four sections, namely (a) Evaluation of Cardiovascular Problems, (b) Interactions of Diabetes and Hypertension, (c) Pathophysiological Aspects of Cardiovascular Dysfunction in Diabetes, and (d) Pharmacological and Therapeutic Aspects of Diabetic Heart. It is hoped that the contents of these chapters will provide adequate information regarding the current status of cardiovascular abnormalities in diabetes and this book will be of great interest to both clinical and experimental cardiologists as well as endocrinologists interested in diabetes.

Inhalt
A. Evaluation of Cardiovascular Problems in Diabetes.- 1. Assessment of cardiac function in diabetic patients by impedance cardiography.- 2. Early diastolic dysfunction of left ventricle and its relation to pathologic finding in patients with diabetes mellitus.- 3. Radionuclide assessment of left ventricular function in middle-aged asymptomatic non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients.- 4. Usefulness of exercise Tl-201 myocardial scintigraphy to detect asymptomatic heart disease in diabetic patients.- 5. Autonomic function test assessed by ambulatory ECG in diabetes.- 6. Diabetic albuminuria and ischemic heart disease.- 7. Prognostic significance of treadmill exercise stress test in diabetic patients without cardiovascular signs.- 8. Coronary artery bypass grafting in the diabetic heart: Myocardial tolerance during surgery and late result.- B. Interactions of Diabetes and Hypertension.- 9. The influence of diabetes on myocardial contractility and energetics in spontaneously hypertensive rats.- 10. Hypertensive-diabetic cardiomyopathy in rats.- 11. Combined effects of hypertension and diabetes on myocardial contractile proteins and cardiac function in rats 95.- 12. Diabetes does not accelerate cardiac hypertrophy in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR).- 13. A close correlation of fasting insulin levels to blood pressure in obese children.- C. Pathophysiological Aspects of Cardiovascular Dysfunction in Diabetes.- 14. Cardiovascular involvements in a new spontaneously diabetic (WBN/Kob) rat.- 15. Biochemical and morphologic alterations in cardiac myocytes in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.- 16. Diabetes prolongs the action potential duration in rat ventricular muscle probably via enhanced calcium current.- 17. Increases in voltage-sensitive calcium channel of cardiac and skeletal muscle in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.- 18. Changes in cell morphology, [Ca2+]i and pHi during metabolic inhibition in isolated myocytes of diabetic rats using dual-loading of fura-2 and BCECF.- 19. Abnormal phosphorylation: Cause of reduced responsiveness to isoproterenol in diabetic heart.- 20. Electron microscopic cytochemical studies on ATPase and acid phosphatase activities of cardiac myocytes in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats.- 21. Myocardial isoenzyme distribution in chronic diabetes: Comparison with isoproterenol-induced chronic myocardial damage.- 22. In vivo 31-NMR spectroscopic investigation of myocardial energy metabolism in alloxan-induced diabetic rabbits.- 23. Characterization of beta-adrenoceptors in sinoatrial node and left ventricular myocardium of diabetic rat hearts by quantitative autoradiography.- 24. Effects of zinc deficiency on heart catecholamine concentrations in normal and diabetic rats.- 25. Atrial natriuretic peptide levels in plasma and atrial auricles of the non-obese diabetic (NOD) mouse.- D. Pharmacological and Therapeutic Aspects of Diabetic Heart.- 26. Effects of beta-adrenoceptor blocking agents on myocardium isolated from experimentally diabetic rats.- 27. Effects of autonomic agents on isolated and perfused hearts of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.- 28. Insulin-like actions of vanadyl sulfate trihydrate in streptozotocin- diabetic rats.- 29. Different cardiac effects of hypoglycaemic sulphonylurea compounds.- 30. Reversibility of diabetic cardiomyopathy by therapeutic interventions in mild diabetes.- 31. Improvement of myocardial function and metabolism in diabetic rats by the carnitine palmitoyltransferase inhibitor etomoxir.- 32. Abnormal mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation of ischaemic andreperfused myocardium reversed by L-propionyl-carnitine.