Table 1.
Baseline characteristics of the patients with infective endocarditis.
Fig 1.
Serum concentrations of inflammatory cytokines in the study groups.
The groups evaluated were: health controls (HC) (n = 34, white circle), non-infective endocarditis (non-IE) infections (n = 30, light gray circle), and IE (n = 81, dark gray circle). The results were expressed as pg/mL and a line represented a median value. Significant differences at p<0.05 are highlighted by letters for difference of a group as compared to health controls indicated by ‘‘a” and to non-infective endocarditis indicated by ‘‘b”.
Fig 2.
Radar graphics showing the proportion of subjects and the immunological biomarkers production in different contexts.
None of the individuals could be identified as high producers of cytokines in the health controls (HC) group. The infective endocarditis (IE) group presented high producers of all cytokines. The non-IE infections group presented high producers of IL-6 and IL-8.
Fig 3.
Serum concentrations of inflammatory cytokines in the patients with infective endocarditis (IE) stratified according to the microorganisms.
The groups evaluated were: culture-negative IE (CN-IE) (white circle), non-staphylococcal IE (non-S IE) (light gray circle), and staphylococcal IE (S IE) (dark gray circle). Significant differences at p<0.05 are highlighted by letter for difference of a group as compared to non-infective endocarditis indicated by ‘‘b”.
Fig 4.
Radar graphics showing the proportion of subjects and the immunological biomarkers production in infective endocarditis (IE) etiological subgroups.
The subgroups evaluated were: culture-negative IE (CN-IE), non-staphylococcal IE (non-S IE), and staphylococcal IE (S IE). Elevated proportion of high producers of IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-12 was observed only in the S IE subgroup. The prevalence of high producers of IL-10 was lower in the S IE subgroup as compared to the others subgroups.
Fig 5.
Networks of cytokines associated with Infective endocarditis.
The groups evaluated were: health controls (HC), infections endocarditis (IE) and etiological subgroups: non-staphylococcal IE (non-S IE) and staphylococcal IE (S IE). Biomarkers networks were assembled to assess the association between human cytokines for each clinical group. The biomarkers networks were constructed using circle layouts with each cytokines represented by specific gray-scale globular nodes.
Table 2.
Comparison between cytokine levels and major symptoms at diagnosis of infective endocarditis and mortality.