الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Heart failure (HF) is a major public health problem. It was singled as an emerging epidemic in 1997. HF is a chronicprogressive condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs for blood and oxygen. Coronary artery disease is the most common form of heart disease and the most common cause of HF.
Current guidelines provide advice on screening and identifying asymptomatic individuals at risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The objectives of these guidelines are to reduce the incidence of first or recurrent clinical events.
Studying gene expression profiles in HF could serve as a convenient tool contributing to identifying diagnostic and prognostic markers as well as targets for therapeutic intervention. It was suggested that vinculin (VCL), a member of the family of membrane-associated proteins, may affect cardiac repair in HF.
The current study aimed to evaluate VCL gene expression in HF post-acute coronary syndrome (ACS). To achieve this goal, 80 subjects were recruited.The subjects were divided into two groups. group one comprised forty patients from the Cardiology Department of Alexandria Main University Hospital diagnosed with HF induced by ACS, which happened more than one month ago, with ejection fraction less than 40% and New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification more than II. group two comprised forty healthy, age and sex-matched control subjects. The studied patients’ whole blood samples were subjected to: (i) determination of VCL mRNA expression using RT qPCR analysis and (ii) determination of VCL protein state by western blot analysis.
All subjects were subjected to the following investigations: thorough history taking, complete clinical examination, laboratory investigation including routine chemical investigations: complete blood count (CBC), random blood sugar (RBS), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), Serum creatinine, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), serum sodium, serum potassium, highly sensitive C-reactive protein (CRP), CK-MB and highly sensitive cardiac troponin (hs-cTn). HF patients were subjected to radiological investigations: echocardiography and ECG.
There was no statistically significant difference between patients and controls as regards age, sex, gender, and smoking.There was no statistically significant difference in blood pressure between the two groups. Regarding CBC, white blood cells and platelets were significantly higher in patients group. Furthermore, on comparison of the two studied groups according to laboratory investigations, RBS, liver functions and BUN were significantly higher in the cases group. Serum potassium was significantly lower in the cases group. CRP was significantly higher in the cases group. On studying cardiac markers, hs-cTn and CK-MB were statistically significantly higher in the cases group.
However, there was no statistically significant difference for the following laboratory investigations: hemoglobin, creatinine and serum sodium.
VCL protein and gene expression seem to be higher in heart failure patients induced by ACS compared to controls. There was no