PMID- 16152779
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20051020
LR  - 20220310
IS  - 0535-5133 (Print)
IS  - 0535-5133 (Linking)
VI  - 46
IP  - 3
DP  - 2005 Sep
TI  - [Patients suffering dilated chagasic cardiopathy or non chagasic cardiopathy show 
      an increased levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha].
PG  - 229-40
AB  - Chagas' disease is a public health problem in Venezuela, affecting people living 
      in rural areas. 30% of the patients evolve to a Chronic Chagasic Myocardiopathy 
      (CCM) characterized by heart failure, arrhythmias, incapacity to work and sudden 
      death. There are not predictive factors to determine the evolution from the 
      indeterminate form of the disease (asymptomatic form) to CCM. In the present 
      paper we have studied 115 patients enrolled in the Cardiology unit at the 
      Baudilio Lara Hospital in Quibor (Lara State, Venezuela) and 12 healthy patients 
      coming from the same area. Patients were evaluated by means of clinical history; 
      echocardiography, electrocardiography and radiology. The presence of anti-T. 
      cruzi antibodies and levels of Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNFalpha) were 
      determined in serum samples. Chagas' disease patients were classified in 3 
      groups: I (asymptomatic), II (asymptomatic with normal left ventricular ejection 
      fraction (LVEF) and electrocardiographic alterations) and and III (symptomatic, 
      electrocardiographic alterations and LVEF < 70%). The results showed that 33.04% 
      of the patients had anti-T. cruzi antibodies in their serum; we also observed a 
      significant increase in the serum levels of TNFalpha in groups I and III of 
      Chagas' disease patients as compared with the control healthy group. Chagas' 
      disease patients belonging to Group II displayed similar TNFalpha levels as 
      controls. We observed a statistically significant (p < 0.05) negative correlation 
      between serum TNFalpha values and LVEF. Patients suffering of non-chagasic 
      myocardiopathy had a significant increase of TNFalpha as compared with control 
      patients and similar levels to those observed in Chagas' disease group III 
      patients. These results confirm that the elevation of TNFalpha serum levels could 
      be a immunopathogenic mechanism in the evolution of myocardiopathies.
FAU - D'Angelo-Mendoza, Elisa
AU  - D'Angelo-Mendoza E
AD  - Unidad de Biologia Celular y Microscopia, Centro de Investigaciones Biomedicas, 
      Decanato de Medicina, Universidad Centro Occidental "Lisandro Alvarado" (UCLA), 
      Barquisimeto. elisad@ucla.edu.ve
FAU - Rodriguez-Bonfante, Claudina
AU  - Rodriguez-Bonfante C
FAU - Camacho, Ignacio
AU  - Camacho I
FAU - Martinez, Johana
AU  - Martinez J
FAU - Perdomo, Tania
AU  - Perdomo T
FAU - Cabrera, Alejandro
AU  - Cabrera A
FAU - Bonfante-Cabarcas, Rafael
AU  - Bonfante-Cabarcas R
LA  - spa
PT  - English Abstract
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
TT  - Pacientes con cardiomiopatia dilatada chagasica y cardiopatia no chagasica 
      presentan niveles elevados del factor de necrosis tumoral alpha.
PL  - Venezuela
TA  - Invest Clin
JT  - Investigacion clinica
JID - 0421531
RN  - 0 (Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha)
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Aged
MH  - Cardiomyopathies/*blood/physiopathology
MH  - Chagas Cardiomyopathy/*blood/physiopathology
MH  - Humans
MH  - Middle Aged
MH  - Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/*metabolism
MH  - Ventricular Function, Left
EDAT- 2005/09/13 09:00
MHDA- 2005/10/21 09:00
CRDT- 2005/09/13 09:00
PHST- 2005/09/13 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2005/10/21 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2005/09/13 09:00 [entrez]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Invest Clin. 2005 Sep;46(3):229-40.