SALIVARY PAF IN ACUTE MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION AND ANGINA - CHANGES DURING HOSPITAL TREATMENT AND RELATIONSHIP TO CARDIAC ENZYMES

Salivary levels of platelet activating factor (PAF) were measured toge ther with serium CPK and interleukin 2 receptor in 30 patients admitte d to the coronary care unit, 9 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis, 1 0 with acute severe asthma and 8 normal controls. 16 of the 30 C.C.U. patients had sustained a acute myocardial infarction (M.I.) 5 had acut e angina and the remaining 9 had non cardiac chest pain. Salivary PAF on admission was significantly higher in the M.I. Patients than in the normal subjects, asthmatics, tuberculosis patients and those with non cardiac chest pain (p<0.001 in all cases) but not those with angina. After 48 hours PAF levels fell in the subjects with M.I. (p<0.01) and no significant difference was seen between any group. PAF levels did n ot show any relationship with CPK levels or site of infarct in the M.I . patients. Interleukin 2 receptor was not significantly raised in the M.I. group as a whole but some individual patients showed markedly in creased serum levels, but these levels did not correlate with either s alivary PAF or serum CPK.