Elevated hyaluronan levels in patients with rheumatic mitral stenosis and pulmonary arterial thromboembolism.

Introduction The role of hyaluronan (HA) was previously demonstrated in patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Mitral stenosis (MS) and pulmonary arterial thromboembolism (PTE) are important health problems that can cause pulmonovascular pathology. Pulmonary arterial hypertension develops especially in untreated patients with severe MS and most of patients with PTE. However, there is no data about HA levels in patients with MS and PTE. In this study, we investigated HA levels in patients with rheumatic MS and PTE. Method Study population was divided into three groups. MS group consisted of 18 patients with moderate or severe MS. PTE group consisted of 16 patients with PTE. Control group consisted of 15 subjects without cardiac and pulmonary disease. Percutaneous mitral balloon valvuloplasty (PMV) was performed on all patients in MS group. Mitral gradients and systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (sPAP) were measured in all patients. HA levels were measured at baseline and first month after PMV. Results Mean sPAP±SD (mmHg) was 23±3 in the control group, 44±9 in the MS group and 66±11 in the PTE group (p echo (r=0.332 p=0.03) and sPAP cath (r=0.559, p=0.007). Serum HA levels (ng/ml) in MS were significantly higher compared to controls [39±14 vs 24±11; p=0.01]. Patients in PTE group had the highest HA levels (61±21; p Conclusion This is the first article showing that both MS and PTE can cause increased serum HA levels. HA levels were decreased with PMV procedure in patients with MS.