Plasma levels of soluble TNF receptors are associated with cardiac function in patients with Chagas heart disease

The soluble receptors tumor necrosis factor-alpha (sTNFRs) can lead to an increase in the expression of tumor necrosis factor, increasing its detrimental to systemic inflammatory activation in Chagas cardiomyopathy (ChC). However, the correlation between sTNFRs levels, echocardiographic, and functional levels in patients with ChC remains unknown. This study aimed to verify the correlation between the plasma sTNFRs levels, echocardiographic, and NYHA functional levels in patients with ChC. Sixty-four patients with ChD (54 ± 2 years, 44% males, NYHA I-II) were evaluated by anamnesis protocol, echocardiography, and plasma sTNFR1 and sTNFR2 measurement. Linear regression analysis and Student's t-test were used as appropriate. Higher plasma sTNFR1 and sTNFR2 levels were associate with worse systolic function (R2 = 0.10; p = 0.008 and R2 = 0.44; p