European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, Vol 6, 503-507, Copyright © 1992 by European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery
Antiheart antibodies following open heart surgery: incidence and correlation with postpericardiotomy syndrome
ES Akl, N Latif, MJ Dunn, ML Rose and MH Yacoub
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, National Heart and Lung Institute, London, UK.
One-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
of myocardial proteins followed by Western blotting is a sensitive method
for the detection of antiheart antibodies after cardiac transplantation. In
a previous study we found that the majority of patients made antiheart
antibodies after cardiac transplantation. It is possible that these
antibodies were formed in response to cardiac damage caused during the
surgical procedure rather than being specific to the transplantation
situation. In this study we have evaluated the role of open cardiac surgery
in the formation of antiheart antibodies for the first 9 months of the
postoperative period using the Western blotting technique and correlated
that with the development of post- pericardiotomy syndrome. Only 25% (9/36)
of patients showed any increase in the pre-existing level of antiheart
antibodies or developed antiheart antibodies with new reactivities. None of
the patients in the study developed manifestations specific for
post-pericardiotomy syndrome during the period of follow-up. The results
support the contention that the high incidence of antiheart antibodies
formed after cardiac transplantation is due to a humoral immune response to
the presence of alloantigens on the grafted heart rather than as a result
of the surgical procedure itself.
