[Functional status of the endocrine system in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy]

The study was undertaken to examine 27 patients aged 20 to 50 years who had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC). Group 1 consisted of 12 patients with asymmetric cardiomyopathy. Group 2 comprised 15 with symmetric cardiomyopathy. Blood samples were taken from the cubital vein before and 30 and 60 minutes after administration of 0.2 mg thyroid-releasing hormone (TRH). Blood hormone concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay. TRH test was found to provide an essential information on the function of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal-thyroid and hypothalamohypophyseal-adrenal systems in HC patients. The HC patients showed lower function of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal-adrenal system. There was a decrease in serum testosterone during all the periods of examination. At the same time the patients from Groups 1 and 2 had substantial features of the function of various links of the immune system, which may suggest a variance in the pathogenesis of the two types of the disease.