Background: Heart failure (HF) has significant mortality and morbidity worldwide and affects more than 37 million people. The mortality and morbidity when the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is > 40 %, is similar when there is low ejection fraction (LVEF < 40 %), and there is an increasing health problem. Studies have shown that epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) has a role in HF pathogenesis. A proinflammatory process on the basis of HF has been shown to be related to EAT. Aim: We aimed to investigate ejection fraction and epicardial adipose tissue relationship. Method: 159 symptomatic HF patients (New York Heart Association functional class ≥II) were included in our study. Age, gender, height, weight, body mass index, waist and demographic characteristics (diabetes mellitus, hypertension, smoking-nonsmoking, coronary artery disease) of all patients were recorded. Results: We examined 159 HF patients. In our population 46 (28.9 %) patients were female and 113 (71.1 %) patients, male. The mean age of our patients was calculated as 67.4 ± 12.6 years. In our study population 69 (43.4 %) of our patients had diabetes and 93 (58.5 %) had hypertension. 77 (48.4 %) of our patients had a history of smoking. We separated our patients into two groups: LV systolic function in HF with LVEF > 40 % (n: 36) and HF with reduced ejection fraction, LVEF < 40 % (n: 123). In our study EAT, LVEF, LVDD (left ventricular diastolic diameter), LVSD (left ventricular systolic diameter), diastolic septum wall thickness and diastolic posterior wall thickness had differences between groups. Differences in LVEF, LVDD, LVSD, diastolic septum wall thickness and diastolic posterior wall thickness were determined. Conclusions Epicardial fat thickness and LVEF had a positive correlation in heart failure patients.
Stroke Volume ; Heart failure

BACKGROUND: Behcet's disease (BD), first described in 1937 as a triadic complex of symptoms (oral aphthae, genital ulcers, and hypopyon uveitis), is a chronic, relapsing, multisystemic idiopathic inflammatory disease. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the usability of messenger RNA (mRNA) expression of cytokine genes for following up patients with BD and also assess polymorphisms in these genes as to how they influence mRNA expression. METHODS: This study investigated the role of the IL1A -889(C/T), IL1B -511(C/T), and IL2 -330(T/G) polymorphisms by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphisms and the expression levels of the genes by real-time PCR in BD. RESULTS: The frequency of the IL2 -330 G allele was found to be significantly higher in patients with BD. A decreased level of IL1A gene expression was found in the patient group with clinically active BD compared to controls. Increased IL1B gene expression levels werefound in patient groups with active, inactive, or ocular BD (p<0.001). IL2 gene expression level manifested no significant change compared to controls in the patient group with clinically active BD; it increased in the groups with clinically inactive BD or ocular involvement. CONCLUSION: IL1A, IL1B, and IL2 gene expression, and IL2 promoter polymorphisms, may be valuable markers for predicting risk in the development of BD. We believe that the results reveal the importance of achieving a better understanding of BD and the prospects of developing future therapeutic strategies.
Alleles ; Gene Expression ; Humans ; Inflammation ; Interleukin-2 ; Interleukins* ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA, Messenger* ; Stomatitis, Aphthous ; Ulcer