High-sensitivity cardiac troponin T is more helpful in detecting peri-operative myocardial injury and apoptosis during coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

AIM: To determine whether there is a correlation between cardiac markers and peri-operative myocardial injury (PMI) and apoptosis in coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery and to compare the efficacy of cardiac markers to detect PMI. METHODS: The study population consisted of 37 patients (24 male, 13 female, mean age 63.4 ± 8.9 years) undergoing elective CABG. Arterial and coronary sinus blood samples were collected just before aortic cross-clamping (pre-ACC) and after aortic declamping (post-ACC). Creatine kinase-MB isoenzyme (CK-MB) activity, and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT), creatine kinase-MB isoenzyme mass (CK-MB mass) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) concentrations were measured in blood samples. Myocardial injury and apoptosis were examined in atrial biopsies. RESULTS: CABG caused PMI and apoptosis in all cases. Concentrations and net releases of cardiac markers significantly increased after aortic declamping (p < 0.001 for CK-MB and CK-MB mass, p < 0.01 for cTnI, p < 0.05 for hs-cTnT). A positive correlation was found between apoptotic index (r = 0.611, p < 0.001 for cTnI; r = 0.806, p < 0.001 for hs-cTnT), myocardial injury score (r = 0.544, p < 0.001 for cTnI; r = 0.719, p < 0.001 for hs-cTnT) and cTnI and hs-cTnT values in the post-ACC period. A positive correlation was found between apoptotic index (r = 0.507, p < 0.001), myocardial injury score (r = 0.416, p = 0.010) and net release of hs-cTnT. Furthermore, a positive correlation was found between aortic cross-clamp (ACC) time (r = 0.448, p = 0.007), cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) time (r = 0.342, p = 0.047) and net release of hs-cTnT. CONCLUSION: Although both cTnI and hs-cTnT may be specific and efficacious markers of myocardial apoptosis and injury occurring during CABG with CPB, hs-cTnT may be a more useful marker than cTnI to detect peri-operative myocardial apoptosis and injury.

Aneurysm and Helicobacter pylori relationship: the seropositivity of CagA, VacA and other antigens of Helicobacter pylori in abdominal and ascending aortic aneurysms.

Helicobacter pylori is thought to be related to atherosclerosis and aneurysm development. We aimed to detect virulance factors of H. pylori and examine the potential etiopathogenetic relationship between aortic aneurysm and H. pylori, 58 abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and 38 ascending aortic aneurysm (AsAA) cases and 57 Healty control group (HCG) were included. We investigated H. pylori IgG by ELISA and virulance factors by Western-Blot (WB) method. No difference was found between AAA (67.24%), AsAA (73.68%) and HCG (57.89%) for H. pylori IgG (p > 0.05). A significant difference was found between AsAA (78.95%) and HCG (57.89%) for H.pylori IgG (p < 0.05) by ELISA and a significant difference was found only between AsAA (100%) and HCG (37.5%) for H. pylori IgG in the 45-55 age group by WB. A statistically significant difference was found between AAA and AsAA for VacA and CagA + VacA and CagA + VacA + UreA antigens and also a significant difference was found between AsAA and HCG for CagA + UreA antigens (p < 0.05). Finally, we suggest that H. pylori VacA has a more important role than CagA in the development of two aneurysms especially in ruptured AAA. New extended studies detecting H. pylori DNA are needed to detect the aetiopathogenesis between aneurysm types and H. pylori.