Relationships between the serum cholesterol levels, production of monocyte proinflammatory cytokines and long-term prognosis in patients with chronic heart failure.

OBJECTIVE: Low serum cholesterol is associated with a poor prognosis in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). However, the relationships between the serum cholesterol level, production of monocyte proinflammatory cytokines and long-term prognosis in CHF patients remain unclear.
METHODS: A total of 95 CHF patients who had not been treated with statins and had a mean left ventricular ejection fraction of 26.0±6.0% were examined. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated, and the production of monocyte tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and interleukin (IL)-6 was measured and expressed as the mean ± SD (pg/mL/10(6) PBMCs).
RESULTS: The production of monocyte TNF-α and IL-6 was found to be significantly and negatively associated with the serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol level (TNF-α: r=-0.515, p<0.001, IL-6: r=-0.419, p<0.001). During a median follow-up of 66.0 months, 49 patients developed cardiac events, including 21 cardiac deaths and 28 readmissions for worsening CHF. A multivariate Cox hazard analysis showed that a monocyte TNF-α level of ≥4.9 pg/mL/10(6) PBMCs [hazard ratio (HR) 187.38, 95% confidence interval (CI) 7.92-4,434.94, p=0.001] and LDL-cholesterol level of <120 mg/dL (HR 9.41, 95% CI 1.02-86.66, p=0.048) were independently associated with the incidence of cardiac events.
CONCLUSION: Low LDL-cholesterol and the upregulation of monocyte proinflammatory cytokine production are both significantly and independently associated with poor outcomes in CHF patients.