Serum levels of ghrelin, tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6 in infants and children with congenital heart disease

Abstract

Objective: To estimate serum levels of ghrelin, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in infants and children with congenital heart disease (CHD), compared with levels in age-matched controls, and to correlate the levels of ghrelin with TNF-alpha and IL-6.

Design: Case-control study.

Setting: Suzan Moubarak Hospital of Al-Minya University, Egypt.

Patients: We measured serum ghrelin, TNF-alpha and IL-6 levels using ELISA in 60 patients with CHD (40 acyanotic and 20 cyanotic) and in 20 control subjects.

Results: Our results showed that patients with CHD, regardless of the presence or absence of cyanosis, had significantly higher serum ghrelin, TNF-alpha and IL-6 than controls (p = 0.000). Serum levels of ghrelin and TNF-alpha in the acyanotic patients were significantly higher than in the cyanotic patients (p = 0.000). On the other hand, there was no significant difference in serum levels of IL-6 between the acyanotic and the cyanotic patients (p = 0.126). In acyanotic and cyanotic patients with CHD, there was a positive correlation between ghrelin and TNF-alpha (r = 0.424; p = 0.006 and r = 0.577; p = 0.008, respectively). Ghrelin levels were not correlated to IL-6 in the acyanotic and cyanotic patients with CHD (r = -0.211; p = 0.216 and r = -0.341; p = 0.08, respectively).

Conclusion: Serum ghrelin, TNF-alpha and IL-6 levels are elevated in patients with CHD whether acyanotic or cyanotic. Increased ghrelin levels represent malnutrition and growth retardation in these patients. The relation of ghrelin with TNF-alpha may be explained by the possible effect of chronic congestive heart failure and chronic shunt hypoxemia.