American heart journal
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American heart journal · Mar 1997
Hepatic release of interleukin-10 during cardiopulmonary bypass in steroid-pretreated patients.
With its antiinflammatory properties, interleukin (IL)-10 may play an important role in limiting complications associated with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). We previously demonstrated that pretreatment with steroids can significantly increase IL-10 production during CPB, but neither the heart nor the lung was found to be its main source. To define whether the liver is the source of IL-10, hepatic venous cannulation was performed in 12 patients undergoing CPB. ⋯ IL-4 was not detected in hepatic venous blood. In conclusion, the liver is a major source of IL-10 during CPB. However, steroid-treated patients do not show an increase in IL-4, and the liver is not the source of IL-4 during and after CPB.
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American heart journal · Mar 1997
Iodine-123 metaiodobenzylguanidine myocardial scintigraphy for prediction of response to beta-blocker therapy in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.
This study was performed to evaluate whether iodine-123 metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) myocardial scintigraphy could predict the response to beta-blocker therapy in patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Beta-Blocker therapy is effective in some patients with DCM. MIBG myocardial scintigraphy has also been suggested to be useful in evaluating the severity of myocardial damage in DCM. ⋯ Of the 45 patients, 30 (67%) responded to beta-blocker therapy, whereas 2 were resistant and 13 showed progression of heart failure or died of heart failure. By logistic regression analysis, the H/M uptake ratio on delayed images was seen to be a good predictor of the response to beta-blocker therapy with a threshold of 1.7 (sensitivity = 91%, specificity = 92%, accuracy = 91%, positive and negative predictive value = 97% and 80%, respectively). These results indicate that an H/M ratio > 1.7 on the delayed MIBG myocardial scintigraphic images provides a useful indication of whether patients with DCM will respond to beta-blocker therapy.