Cell-Mediated Immune Injury to the Heart

Abstract

Ischemic heart disease is considered a primary form of fatal cardiac disease both in the United States and many other developed countries of the world. A frequent consequence of sudden myocardial ischemia, such as that which follows coronary thrombosis, is myocardial infarction. Muscle necrosis may be prevented if collateral circulation is adequate. However, it is now widely accepted that during corrective surgical procedures cardiac antigens may be released and an autoimmuner-type response may ensue. The relationship between cardiac manifestations after cardiac infarction or cardiac surgery is unresolved and controversial. Cardiac autoantibodies are often detected in the sera of patients following infarction and/or cardiotomy but the pathogenic roles of these serum factors have not been unequivocally explained. Furthermore, little attention has been directed to the nature and role of autoreactive immunocompetent cells in the autoimmune-associated cardiac type disorders.