Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Mortality and morbidity after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remain high even when myocardial reperfusion is successful. Thus, additional approaches are warranted. Erythropoietin (EPO) was found to be a cytoprotective molecule that might represent a novel strategy to limit the infarct size.

Aim of the work: To investigate serum erythropoietin level and its relation to infarct size in Egyptian patients with AMI.

Methods: We studied 20 patients with AMI who underwent PCI within 12 h. Serum EPO levels were measured within 6 h and 7 days after the onset of AMI. Ten healthy subjects were controls.

Results: Serum EPO was higher among patients compared to controls. This increase was not related to haemoglobin and had a negative significant correlation with CK and wall motion score index while a positive significant correlation with ejection fraction. Patients with above median EPO level had lower CK and higher ejection fraction compared to those with below median EPO. Serum EPO significantly increased 7 days after the onset of MI and showed significant positive correlation with EPO within 6 h of the onset of MI.

Conclusion: High endogenous EPO level can predict a smaller infarct size in Egyptian patients with acute MI.

Key words: Erythropoietin, acute myocardial infarction, Egyptian

Abbreviations: AMI: Acute myocardial infarction, EPO: Erythropoietin, PCI: Percutaneous coronary intervention, CK: creatine phosphokinase