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Antibodies Against Myosin in Sera of Patients with Idiopathic Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation
Author(s) -
MAIXENT JEANMICHEL,
PAGANELLI FRANCK,
SCAGLIONE JORGE,
LÉVY SAMUEL
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of cardiovascular electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.193
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1540-8167
pISSN - 1045-3873
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8167.1998.tb00942.x
Subject(s) - medicine , paroxysmal atrial fibrillation , cardiology , atrial fibrillation , antibody , immunology
Myosin Antibodies in Atrial Fibrillation. Introduction : Circulating autoantibodies against myosin heavy chain have been detected in patients with ventricular myocarditis and in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. This study investigated the presence of antibodies against myosin in sera of healthy control persons as compared with patients with idiopathic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation refractory to antiarrhythmic therapy. Methods and Results : An SDS‐PAGK (sodium dodecylsulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) procedure, followed by Western blotting with homogenates and membrane fractions of human left ventricular and atrial specimen as antigens, was used to analyze sera of 10 patients with idiopathic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and 10 age‐matched healthy control subjects. Circulating immunoglobulin G reactivity against cardiac myosin heavy chain was detected in 6 patients (60%) as compared with 1 control subject (10%). This difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). All patients with idiopathic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation who showed reactivity against myosin heavy chain also had specific reactivity in their sera that exhibited reactivities to both ventricular and atrial cardiac myosin heavy chain isoforms. Conclusion : This study demonstrates the presence of circulating autoantibodies against myosin heavy chain in a significant percentage of patients with idiopathic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and raises the possibility of an autoimmune process in some patients with paroxysmal atrial fibbrillation.