[Immunoregulatory lymphocyte subpopulations in patients with dilated and hypertrophic cardiomyopathies]

Forty patients with dilatation cardiomyopathy (DCM) and 30 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) were examined immunologically. Immunoregulatory lymphocytes (T1B) and their subpopulations (T helpers, T suppressors, natural killers--NK) were studied quantitatively and functionally. The patients with DCM showed inhibition of the number of T suppressors in part of the cases, attended by a decrease in non-specific (spontaneous) and mitogenin-induced suppressor activity, the lowering of the amount and activity of NK in the overwhelming majority of the cases. Study of the immunological characteristics in the patients with HCM did not reveal any substantial changes as compared to those in health. Immune disorders in the patients with DCM form the basis for conducting goal-oriented immunocorrection.