Coronary artery disease in patients with liver cirrhosis.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) has been reported to be low in patients with liver cirrhosis. Previous studies have, however, included mostly patients with cirrhosis due to hepatitis C. We aimed to determine the prevalence and predictive factors of CAD in a cohort of consecutive patients with cirrhosis of various etiologies compared to the general population. METHODS: A total of 127 patients with cirrhosis were evaluated for a history of CAD and cardiovascular risk factors. Arterial blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, and serum cholesterol were measured. Nutritional status was assessed by anthropometry and estimation of recent weight change. A group of 203 subjects from the general population with similar age and gender distribution, as well as smoking habits as the cirrhotic patients, served as controls. RESULTS: CAD was more common in cirrhotics compared to controls (20% vs. 12%, P = 0.001). Compared to controls, cirrhotics had lower mean arterial blood pressure and serum cholesterol and a higher prevalence of diabetes, but did not differ significantly in the prevalence of hypertension or family history for CAD. In regression analysis, CAD was independently related to diabetes (odds ratio [OR] 5.47, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.44-12.28), but not to liver cirrhosis. In the cirrhosis group, only alcoholic cirrhosis (OR 9.50, 95% CI 1.08-83.4) and age (OR 1.23 per year, 95% CI 1.06-1.43) were independently related to CAD. CONCLUSIONS: Liver cirrhosis, per se, does not seem to confer a protective effect against CAD. In cirrhotics, older age and alcoholic etiology were independently related to CAD.

Increased interleukin-6 but not tumour necrosis factor-alpha predicts mortality in the population of elderly heart failure patients.

BACKGROUND: Increased proinflammatory cytokines have mainly been studied in younger patients with heart failure and are regarded as prognostic markers. However, whether this holds true in elderly patients with heart failure remains uncertain. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether inflammation is equally important in the progression of heart failure in the elderly as has been previously reported in younger patients, and whether cytokine level can predict mortality in this population of elderly heart failure patients. METHODS: The cytokine profile in an elderly patient group with severe heart failure (n=54, mean [+/- SD] age of 80.1+/-5.0 years, New York Heart Association class III or IV) was compared with that of age-matched healthy individuals (n=70). Of the 54 study patients, 46% were hypertensive, 54% had coronary artery disease, 43% had atrial fibrillation and 24% had a previous stroke. One-year mortality was 24%. RESULTS: The results showed increased levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumour necrosis factor-alpha and epidermal growth factor in the heart failure patients compared with those in the control group. Moreover, IL-6, tumour necrosis factor-alpha and vascular endothelial growth factor were significantly increased in patients who died within one year. Further logistic regression analyses showed that IL-6 was the only significant predictor of one-year mortality. In a subgroup of heart failure patients with atrial fibrillation, there were significant cytokine activations, whereas in a subgroup with ischemia or diabetes, cytokines were less activated. CONCLUSIONS: In the present octogenarian group with heart failure, there were significant increases of inflammatory cytokines that were associated with mortality, and IL-6 was the only cytokine to predict one-year mortality. Cytokine activation was more pronounced in the subgroup of patients with heart failure and concomitant atrial fibrillation.