Abstract
Most cases of myocardial infarction are resulted from coronary artheriosclerosis. However, distinctive factors for widening or exaggerating the lesions have been still obscured. As one of the factors, complements have been reported, but the precise mechanisms of the complements for myocardial injury have not been elucidated. We reported in this paper that the levels of various complement components and CRP from 11 patients who hospitalized within 24 hours after the onset of heart attack were evaluated, comparing levels of m-GOT which reflected the severity of myocardial injury.
Groups which are classified depend on the serum levels of m-GOT are 1st group (n=25): under 10Ku/ml, 2nd group (n=14): 11-30Ku/ml, 3rd group (n=7): 31-50Ku/ml and 4th group (n=6): over 51Ku/ml.
The levels of CRP were well correlated with the levels of m-GOT. No significant change of the levels of early complement components, Clq and C4, were found. Late complement components, C3, C5, C9, Factor B, P and C3a anaphylatoxin, were increased with elevating of m-GOT, suggesting that the alternative pathway may involve to the myocardial injury. Among the late complement components, particularly C3a anaphylatoxin was closely correlated with level of m-GOT (r=0.706).
These results suggested that the late complement components might be activated in the lesion of the myocardium and exaggerate the lesion.
The measurement of C3a levels of the patients with myocardial infarction is useful for evaluating the severity of the disease.
