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Unlabelled: Renal dysfunction is a frequent and severe complication after conventional hypothermic cardiac surgery. Little is known about this complication when cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is performed under normothermic conditions (e.g., more than 36 degrees C). Thus, we prospectively studied 649 consecutive patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery or valve surgery with normothermic CPB. The association between renal dysfunction (defined as a > or =30% preoperative-to-maximum postoperative increase in serum creatinine level) and perioperative variables was studied by univariate and multivariate analysis. Renal dysfunction occurred in 17% of the patients. Twenty-one (3.2%) patients required dialysis. Independent preoperative predictors of this complication were: advanced age, ASA class >3, active infective endocarditis, radiocontrast agent administration <48 h before surgery, and combined surgery. When all the variables were entered, active infective endocarditis, radiocontrast agent administration, postoperative low cardiac output, and postoperative bleeding were independently associated with renal dysfunction. The in-hospital mortality rate was 27.5% when this complication occurred (versus 1.6%; P < 0.0001). Furthermore, postoperative renal dysfunction was independently associated with in-hospital mortality (odds ratio, 4.1 [95% confidence interval, 1.3-12.8]). We conclude that advanced age, active endocarditis, and recent (within 48 h) radiocontrast agent administration, as well as postoperative hemodynamic dysfunction, are more consistently predictive of postoperative renal dysfunction than CPB factors., Implications: We found that postoperative renal dysfunction was a frequent and severe complication after normothermic cardiac surgery, independently associated with poor outcome. Independent predictors of this complication were advanced age, active endocarditis, and recent (within 48 h) radiocontrast agent administration (the only preoperative modifiable factor), as well as postoperative hemodynamic dysfunction.

From a registry of 136 patients undergoing pericardiocentesis, 14 patients with autoimmune and 15 patients with neoplastic effusions were selected. All underwent pericardioscopy, epicardial and pericardial biopsy with histologic, immunohistologic, and polymerase chain reaction/or in situ hybridization analysis for microbial DNAs and RNA. Pericardioscopy identified neoplastic effusions by the high occurrence of protrusions. Fibrin threads and layers and neovascularization were found in both groups. For identification of the inflammatory and neoplastic process, the combined analysis of the cytology of the effusion and epicardial biopsy evaluation proved to be most important. Epicardial biopsy demonstrated a slightly higher sensitivity for identifying neoplastic disorders in the pericardium than cytology alone. Pericardial biopsy was inconclusive. Intrapericardial administration of 1 g of crystalloid triamcinolone in autoreactive pericarditis prevented recurrence in 13 of the 14 cases after 3 months and in 12 of the 14 cases after 1 year. In neoplastic effusion, intrapericardial administration of 50 mg cis-platin for 24 h prevented recurrence of a hemodynamically relevant effusion after 3 months in all, and after 6-12 months in 14 of 15 patients. Mortality in neoplastic effusion due to noncardiac tumor progression was 47 and 80%, respectively, after 3 and 6 months, as can be expected in endstage neoplastic disease. This pilot study demonstrates that local drug application is feasible, life-saving, and well tolerated by the patients. It opens perspectives for local drug application in other cardiac disorders as well.

It is still a matter of controversy whether immunosuppressive therapy is beneficial in patients with acute myocarditis, although autoimmune mechanisms play an important role in the development of myocarditis and its sequelae, for example, in dilated heart muscle disease, particularly because it is postulated that in man immunosuppression may aggravate the viral cell damage that is proposed to trigger the myocarditis. We report the clinical (NYHA-class), haemodynamic (improvement of left ventricular ejection fraction, left ventricular end-diastolic volume index), histological (infiltrate, fibrosis, myocyte hypertrophy) and immunohistological (immunoglobulin and C3-binding) findings in a controlled study including 17 patients with active myocarditis or acute perimyocarditis who were treated with a combination of prednisone and azathioprine for 3 months. We compared them with 21 patients of comparable clinical and haemodynamic compromise who underwent conventional treatment. Follow-up examinations were performed after 3 months. There was significant improvement of ejection fraction and NYHA-classification under immunosuppressive treatment. Infiltrates were reduced significantly in the immunosuppressed patients group only. Binding of IgG and IgM in the endomyocardial biopsy was diminished slightly but not significantly by both regimens. Fibrosis and myocyte hypertrophy were augmented in both treatment arms. There was no difference with respect to prognosis: four patients died or underwent heart transplantation in the immunosuppressive treatment group compared to five conventionally treated patients.

Antisarcolemmal (ASAs) and antimyolemmal antibodies (AMLAs) are serological hallmarks of inflammatory heart muscle disease. They occur in a similar incidence in postcardiac injury syndromes, sarcoid heart disease or in dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Rarely but still notably they are found with increasing age or in coronary artery disease. We therefore examined whether they are truly pathogenetic or whether they also possess properties of 'natural antibodies'. AMLAs and ASAs, like natural antibodies, have specificity for preserved structures on the membrane; they possess cross-reactivity and increase with age. In contrast to natural antibodies, however, they occur frequently after viral stimulation or other forms of trauma, are more often of the IgG and IgA than of the IgM isotype and fix complement in the acute stage of the disease. They also possess cytolytic and cytotoxic properties when incubated in vitro with isolated heart muscle cells. Antigenic mimicry has been demonstrated to be operative, since they are cross-reactive to viral proteins.