CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

There is evidence that acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is associatedwith increasing production of reactive oxygen species andtissue injury. The aim of this study was to assess the presence ofoxidative stress indices in saliva 24 and 48h after AMI. Materialsand methods: We designed a prospective study comparing salivarylevels of biomarkers of oxidative stress in patients with AMIwith elevation of the ST segment in electrocardiogram versus clinicallyhealthy subjects. Oxidative stress indices including the rateof oxidation of 2?7? dichlorohydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFHDA)and the activity of the antioxidant enzyme catalase (CAT)were evaluated in saliva from patients with AMI at 24 and 48hours. At each sampling time, blood was drawn for serum markersof myocardial infarction. Results: This study included tenpatients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarctionand ten clinically healthy controls. Mean age was 67.8 ± 11.1 vs.48.7 ± 4.1 years (p0.05) for AMI vs. controls, respectively. Our results demonstratedan increase in the rate of oxidation of DCFH-DA in themyocardial infarction group as compared with controls (p=0.004),which remained unchanged at 48h. There was no difference insalivary catalase activity between controls and AMI subjects at24h or at 48h post-diagnosis (p=0.157). The relationship betweenCAT48 and DCFH-DA48 was fairly significant (r=0.39; p=0.053).Conclusion: This preliminary study showed that biomarkers ofoxidative stress are detectable in saliva of patients with acutemyocardial infarction. Clinical Relevance: Future studies using alarger population are needed to confirm these observations and toexplore the possibility of using the saliva to monitor evolving diagnosisand prognosis in acute coronary syndrome.