Measurement of Cytokines in valve prostheses
Cytokine levels are shown in Table 2. In the analysis by gender and age, women had lower levels of ET-1 than men (0.53 vs. 0.67 pg/ml, p = 0.02), and there was a difference in IL-6 (p = 0.04). Patients older than 60 years had decreased levels of IL-1ß (3-15 pg/cm3, p <0.001) and higher concentration of IL-4 (30-15 pg/ml, p < 0.05). Differences in Cytokine levels in Biological and Mechanical Valves and the control group are shown in Table 3.
When comparing by the time of evolution dividing the patients in under five years, between 5 and 9 years or patients with more than ten years of placement of the PrAV, and after having performed the AVR, there was no difference in the ET-1 level (p = 0.81). IL-1ß, OPG, and TNFα were higher in patients with less than five years of evolution versus those with more than ten years (p = 0.004, p = 0.02, and p = 0.03, respectively) in the Posthoc analysis test.