title: Serum Pentraxin 3 and hs-CRP Levels in Children with Severe Pulmonary Hypertension.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Pulmonary arterial hypertension secondary to untreated left-to-right shunt defects leads to increased pulmonary blood flow, endothelial dysfunction, increased pulmonary vascular resistance, vascular remodelling, neointimal and plexiform lesions. Some recent studies have shown that inflammation has an important role in the pathophysiology of pulmonary arterial hypertension.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study is to evaluate serum pentraxin 3 and high sensitive (hs)-C reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels in children with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) secondary to untreated congenital heart defects and evaluate the role of inflammation in pulmonary hypertension.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  After ethics committee approval and receiving consent from parents, there were 31 children were selected for the study with severe PAH, mostly with a left-to-right shunt, who had been assessed by cardiac catheterisation and were taking specific pulmonary vasodilators. The control group consisted of 39 age and gender matched healthy children. After recording data about all the patients including age, gender, weight, haemodynamic studies and vasodilator testing, a physical examination was done for all subjects. Blood was taken from patients and the control group using peripheral veins to analyse serum Pentraxin 3, N-terminal pro-Brain Natriuretic Peptide (NT-ProBNP) and hs-CRP levels. Serum Pentraxin-3 levels were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and expressed as ng/mL. Serum hs-CRP levels were measured with an immunonephelometric method and expressed as mg/dL. The serum concentration of NT-proBNP was determined by a chemiluminescent immunumetric assay and expressed as pg/mL.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum Pentraxin- 3 levels were determined to be 1.28±2.12 (0.12-11.43) in the PAH group (group 1) and 0.40±0.72 (0.07-3.45) in group 2. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p<0.01). Serum hs-CRP levels were measured as 2.92±2.12 (0.32-14.7) mg/dL in group 1 and 0.35±0.16 (0.07-3.45) mg/dL in group 2. The hs-CRP level was increased in the PAH group to a significant degree (p<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed that pentraxin 3 and hs-CRP levels were increased significantly in the PAH group. We consider that inflammation plays an important role in severe pulmonary hypertension and progressive pulmonary arterial hypertension in children with PAH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Cardiology, İnönü University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Cemşit
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Karakurt
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Osman
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Başpınar
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Cardiology, İnönü University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Fazlı Serkan
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Çelik
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, İnönü University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Çağatay
authors.initials: Ç
authors.lastname: Taşkapan
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Gaziantep University Faculty of Medicine, Gaziantep, Turkey.
authors.forename: Aydın Derya
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Şahin
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, İnönü University Faculty of Medicine, Malatya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Saim
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yoloğlu
keywords: hs-CRP; inflammation; pentraxin 3; pulmonary arterial hypertension