Perioperative elafin for ischaemia-reperfusion injury during coronary artery bypass graft surgery: a randomised-controlled trial

S. R. Alam*, S. C. Lewis, V. Zamvar, R. Pessotto, M. R. Dweck, A. Krishan, K. Goodman, K. Oatey, R. Harkess, L. Milne, S. Thomas, N. M. Mills, C. Moore, S. Semple, O. Wiedow, C. Stirrat, S. Mirsadraee, D. E. Newby, P. A. Henriksen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

BACKGROUND:Elafin is a potent endogenous neutrophil elastase inhibitor that protects against myocardial inflammation and injury in preclinical models of ischaemic-reperfusion injury. We investigated whether elafin could inhibit myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion injury induced during coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.
METHODS AND RESULTS:In a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled parallel group clinical trial, 87 patients undergoing CABG surgery were randomised 1:1 to intravenous elafin 200 mg or saline placebo administered after induction of anaesthesia and prior to sternotomy. Myocardial injury was measured as cardiac troponin I release over 48 h (area under the curve (AUC)) and myocardial infarction identified with MRI. Postischaemic inflammation was measured by plasma markers including AUC high-sensitive C reactive protein (hs-CRP) and myeloperoxidase (MPO). Elafin infusion was safe and resulted in >3000-fold increase in plasma elafin concentrations and >50% inhibition of elastase activity in the first 24 h. This did not reduce myocardial injury over 48 h (ratio of geometric means (elafin/placebo) of AUC troponin I 0.74 (95% CI 0.47 to 1.15, p=0.18)) although post hoc analysis of the high-sensitive assay revealed lower troponin I concentrations at 6 h in elafin-treated patients (median 2.4 vs 4.1 μg/L, p=0.035). Elafin had no effect on myocardial infarction (elafin, 7/34 vs placebo, 5/35 patients) or on markers of inflammation: mean differences for AUC hs-CRP of 499 mg/L/48 h (95% CI -207 to 1205, p=0.16), and AUC MPO of 238 ng/mL/48 h (95% CI -235 to 711, p=0.320).
CONCLUSIONS:There was no strong evidence that neutrophil elastase inhibition with a single-dose elafin treatment reduced myocardial injury and inflammation following CABG-induced ischaemia-reperfusion injury.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1639-1645
Number of pages7
JournalHeart
Volume101
Issue number20
Early online date26 Aug 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Sept 2015
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

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