title: Elevated serum levels of ghrelin and TNF-α in patients with cyanotic and acyanotic congenital heart disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The levels of ghrelin and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) are considered biological markers of congenital heart diseases (CHD). The present meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the clinical significance of serum levels of ghrelin and TNF-α in children with (CHD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Chinese and English scientific literature databases were searched to retrieve published studies relevant to ghrelin, TNF-α and CHD. Manual search was additionally employed to identify other relevant studies from cross-references. The retrieved studies were screened on the basis of our stringent inclusion and exclusion criteria to select high quality case-control studies for meta-analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We initially retrieved 108 published studies (20 in Chinese and 88 in English) from database searches. Finally, 6 case-control studies (5 in English and 1 in Chinese) were enrolled in our meta-analysis, and contained a total of 160 cyanotic congenital heart disease (CCHD) patients and 215 acyanotic congenital heart disease (ACHD) patients, along with 162 healthy controls. The results of meta-analysis showed that serum levels of ghrelin and TNF-α in CCHD or ACHD children were significantly higher than those in healthy controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our meta-analysis results showed that serum levels of ghrelin and TNF-α are elevated in children with CHD, and could be used as effective biologic markers in early diagnosis of CHD.
authors.affiliation: Outpatient Department of Pediatrics, No.1 Hospital of Jilin University, Xinmin Street No.71, Changchun, 130021, China.
authors.forename: Sai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, the Third Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Gong-Liang
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, No.1 Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
authors.forename: Li-Li
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Outpatient Department of Pediatrics, No.1 Hospital of Jilin University, Xinmin Street No.71, Changchun, 130021, China. sunliqun0203@163.com.
authors.forename: Li-Qun
authors.initials: LQ
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003490:Cyanosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D054439:Ghrelin / Q000097:blood*; D006330:Heart Defects, Congenital / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D054439:Ghrelin; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
keywords: TNF-α; acyanotic; congenital heart disease; cyanotic; ghrelin; meta-analysis