ACUTE PHASE REACTANCTS IN PERICARDIAL FLUID ARE INDICATORS OF CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE

Inflammation in formation of atherosclerosis, and acute phase reactants in the site of inflammation have major functions. Thus, do the acute phase reactants constitute the biggest risk factor for coronary artery disease? 55 patients are included in the study. Patients with coronary artery bypass surgery are included in Group I (38 patients) and patients with valve operation are included in Group II (17 patients). CABG patients are further divided into two sub-groups as on-pump and off-pump. In both groups, homocystein, high sensitivity C reactive protein, ceruloplasmin, lipoprotein A and serum amyloid A protein levels are analyzed from blood and pericardial fluid. In patients with coronary artery disease, the measured high specific C- reactive protein levels from blood and pericardial fluid are found to be significantly high compared to patients with valve operation.Homocystein levels of pericardial fluids of patients with CABG are found to be higher than patients with valve operation and it is confirmed that the situation is correlated with blood homocystein levels. Although there are lots studies expressing the relation between coronary artery disease and lipoprotein A, ceruloplasmin and serum amyloid A protein levels; no significant difference for those parameters was obtained in our study. We determined that other phase reactants are higher in patients with coronary artery disease, in accordance with the literature. We aimed to state that acute phase reactants not only increase as a result of disease, but their levels are also elevated beforehand, as an indicator of the disease.