ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the changes and clinical significance of the plasma cytokines and endothelium function in patients with chronic pulmonary heart failure disease at high altitude area.Methods Plasma levels of tumor necrosisfactor-alpha(TNF-?),interleukin-6(IL-6),endothelin-1(ET-1) were measured in 278 chronic pulmonary heart patients with various degrees of heart failure and in 48 healthy controls.Left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF),Right ventricular ejection fraction(RVEF) and Pulmonary(PASP) were examined with echocardiography.Results Plasma levels of TNF-?,IL-6,ET-1 were elevated in patients of functional classes Ⅱto Ⅳ as compared with age-matched control subjects and were progressively elvated with the decreasing functional status of the patients.The levels of TNF-?,IL-6,ET-1 respectively were positively correlated with PASP but negtively correlated with LVEF and RVEF(P