Change And Significance Of IL-18 And CD54 In Children With Congestive Heart Failure

Objective Congestive Heart Failure(CHF) is a common urgent and critical disease in children. The mechanisms of cardiac remodeling are very complex, many causes are involed. Cytokines are basic meditors of immunity, and they have extensive functions in the development of CHF, which involed the inflammatory cells activation and infiltration.The functions of cytokines are extremely complex, affecting each other in their induction, regulation of receptor, and interaction of bioactivity. So an abundant and sophisticated cytokine network was formed. Recently some studies have demonstrated that cytokines are expressed during the inflammation of cardiovascular disease. Interleukin-18(IL-18) is a new discovered cytokine, which has much important biological function. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1, CD54)is a key factor of immunity. IL-18 and CD54 may participate in the pathophysiology of CHF, however there are few studies on this subject in children. The main aim of this experiment is to detect the levels of IL-18 in serum and expression levels of CD54 on lymphocyte in children with CHF, in order to discover the role of IL-18 and CD54 in CHF, and to evaluate the diagnostic value of IL-18 and CD54 in CHF. The experiment will help us understand the pathophysiology of CHF and may provide new measures for theraphy...