Journal article
Decreased catecholamine degradation associates with shock and kidney injury after cardiac surgery
A Haase-Fielitz, M Haase, R Bellomo, G Lambert, G Matalanis, D Story, L Doolan, B Buxton, G Gutteridge, FC Luft, WH Schunck, D Dragun
Journal of the American Society of Nephrology | AMER SOC NEPHROLOGY | Published : 2009
Abstract
Enzymatic pathways involving catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) catabolize circulating catecholamines. A G-to-A polymorphism in the fourth exon of the COMT gene results in a valine-to-methionine amino acid substitution at codon 158, which leads to thermolability and low ("L"), as opposed to high ("H"), enzymatic activity. We enrolled 260 patients postbypass surgery to test the hypothesis that COMT gene variants impair circulating catecholamine metabolism, predisposing to shock and acute kidney injury (AKI) after cardiac surgery. In accordance with the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, we identified 64 (24.6%) homozygous (LL), 123 (47.3%) heterozygous (HL), and 73 (28.1%) homozygous (HH) patients...
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Funding Acknowledgements
Dr M. Haase holds a postdoctoral Feodor-Lynen Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. We thank the cardiac intensive care and operating theater nursing staff for their cooperation and the patients for participation in this study. Moreover, we are grateful for excellent technical assistance by Ramona Zummach (Max Delbruck Center, Berlin, Germany) with genotyping and by Florentia Socratous, (Baker Heart Research Institute, Melbourne, Australia) with catecholamine measurements.