Interleukin-6 (IL-6) has been shown to contribute to the progression of myocardial damage and dysfunction in congestive heart failure. We report a case of a 53-year old woman with congestive heart failure that may have been caused by IL-6 secreting uterine leiomyoma. The woman developed progressive dyspnea, pleural effusion, and leg edema with a decreased left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Imaging studies indicated uterine leiomyoma compressing the vena cava. Due to unresponsiveness to conventional medical treatment, she underwent a total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy to alleviate compression of the vena cava. After surgery, pleural effusion and leg edema completely resolved. Concomitant with the subsequent improvement of LVEF, a pre-operative serum IL-6 measurement of 36.2 pg/mL fell to 1.6 pg/mL postoperatively. Immunologically positive staining for IL-6 was demonstrated in the cytoplasm of most of the uterine leiomyoma cells. These findings suggest that IL-6 produced by leiomyoma cells may have been involved in the pathophysiological progression of heart failure and associated hemodynamic changes.
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Case Report
The possible involvement of interleukin-6 in congestive heart failure in a postmenopausal woman with uterine fibromatosis
M. Ohta1,*, N. Keira2, S. Yoshida1, R. Yasuda1, Y. Tarumi3, H. Tsuchiya3, M. Kikai2, T. Nomura2, T. Tatsumi2
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1
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Chibune General Hospital, Osaka, Japan
2
Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kyoto Chubu Medical Center, Kyoto, Japan
3
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kyoto Chubu Medical Center, Kyoto, Japan
*Correspondence: tam.arta0119@gmail.com (MAMIKO OHTA)
Clin. Exp. Obstet. Gynecol. 2020, 47(4), 590–595;
https://doi.org/10.31083/j.ceog.2020.04.5062
Submitted: 20 November 2018 | Accepted: 21 January 2019 | Published: 15 August 2020
Copyright: © 2020 Ohta et al. Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Abstract
Keywords
Leiomyoma
Interleukin-6
Heart failure
Pleural effusion
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