[Relationship between the detection of circulating antibodies to antigen with a molecular weight of 67 kD and the severity of clinical manifestations of infectious-allergic myocarditis]. / Vzaimosviaz' mezhdu vyiavleniem tsirkuliruiushchikh antitel k antigeny c molekuliarnoi massoi 67 kD i tiazhest'iu klinicheskikh proiavlennii infektsionno-allergicheskogo miokardita.

Infectious allergic myocarditis (IAM) is frequently complicated by signs of congestive heart failure (CHF). IAM patients generally suffer from rhythm and conduction disturbances which can be the leading symptom of the disease in some patients. Slowly progressive immune inflammation in the myocardium makes the differential diagnosis difficult in IAM and dilated cardiomyopathy in which endomyocardial biopsy and cardiospecific immunological examinations of the patient are of great significance. Identification of the autoimmune process in the myocardium and early immunodepressive therapy may arrest the progression of myocardial damage. The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between antigen antibodies and clinical manifestations of myocardial damage in IAM.

[Determination of the circulating antibodies to cardiomyocyte membrane proteins based on the immunoblotting principle]. / Opredelenie tsirkuliruiushchikh antitel k belkam membrany kardiomiotsitov na printsipe immunoblottinga.

Cardiomyocyte membrane proteins (CMP) were isolated from the hearts of subjects dead from injuries or brain tumors by differentiated centrifugation in sucrose density gradient for the determination of anti-CMP antibodies in the blood serum samples of myocarditis patients. CMP preparation reactivity with blood serum antibodies of patients with myocarditis and other myocardial diseases, as well as with systemic lupus erythematosus, was assessed by the immune blotting technique. The findings evidence a high incidence of antibody interaction with CMP with a molecular mass of 67 kD. The method is highly specific and sensitive, its results are fairly well reproducible, and the technique is simple.

[The viral and immunological characteristics of cardiomyopathies and myocarditis]. / Virusoimmunologicheskaia kharakteristika kardiomiopatii i miokarditov.

As many as 97 patients with myocardial lesions: congestive and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (CMP), postmyocarditis CMP (PM CMP), myocarditis (MC), alcoholic heart injury (AHI), coronary heart disease (CHD), vegetodysovarian myocardiodystrophy were examined by means of a complex of the virological tests (for Coxsackie B, Epstein-Barr and hepatitis B viruses) and immunoassays (for antibodies to different components of the myocardium, leukocyte migration inhibition test, antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity test, measurements of T and B lymphocytes and their subpopulations, and so forth). Virus infection was shown to be of a role for the onset of acute MC (usually reversible) and congestive CMP. At the same time the autoimmune mechanisms of the lesions were conclusively ascertained in MC associated with heart failure and in PM CMP. In patients with congestive CMP and AHI coupled with heart failure, antibodies to nerve fibers of the myocardium could be demonstrated in the presence of T-lymphocyte deficiency and high titers of antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus. This does not allow excluding myocardial denervation leading to refractory heart failure. Some immunological parameters made use of in the study provide an opportunity of an objective evaluation of the effect glucocorticoid treatment produces on patients suffering from MC and PM CMP.

Immune cytotoxic mechanism of myocardial lesion in non-specific myocarditis and idiopathic congestive cardiomyopathy.

The immune cytotoxic mechanism of myocardial lesion was studied in 15 patients with non-specific myocarditis (NM) and in 10 patients with idiopathic congestive cardiomyopathy (ICC). In addition, 10 control patients having ischaemic heart disease (IHD) with congestive heart failure (CHF) and a control group of blood donors were examined. The following parameters were examined: anti-heart antibodies (by indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), lymphocyte sensibilization (by leucocyte migration inhibition test; the antigen used was cardiomyocyte membrane protein), and killer cells (K-cells) activity in the course of antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity. Anti-heart antibodies were found in 73% of patients with NM, 50% patients with ICC and 33% patients with CHF. Lymphocyte sensibilization to the myocardium was found in 87% of patients with NM, and in more than half of the patients with ICC. Cardiospecific cytotoxic immune reaction was reproduced in vitro in 9 patients with NM and in 4 patients with ICC. It is assumed that an analogical mechanism of myocardial lesion functions in vivo.