NK CELL ACTIVITY REGARDING DELIRIUM

我们测量并比较了26例心血管疾病手术前患者血浆游离3-甲氧基-4-羟基-苯基-乙二醇（pMHPG）（去甲肾上腺素的主要代谢物）水平和自然杀伤（NK）细胞活性，其中11例患者表现为谵妄，15例患者无谵妄。总之，我们发现，pMHPG水平在术后谵妄患者手术前高于在没有患者，而NK细胞活性显示两组之间没有差异。去甲肾上腺素能神经元的过度活跃可能与术后谵妄的发生有关。此外，我们认为术前测定pMHPG水平可能是预测术后谵妄发生的有用工具。

We measured and comparaed levels of plasma free 3-methoxy-4-hydroxy-phenyl-(ethylene)glycol(pMHPG), a major metabolite of noradrenaline, and natural killer(NK)cell activity in 26 patients prior to undergoing operations for cardiovascular diseases 11 of whom expressed delirium and 15 of which did not. In conclusion, we found that pMHPG levels before the operations were higher in patients with post-operative delirium than in the patients without, while NK cell activity showed no difference between the two groups. It is possible that hyperactivity of noradrenargic neurons is connected with the development of post-operative delirium. Further, we considered that measurements of pMHPG level before operation might be a useful tool to predict the occurrence of post-operative delirium.