Effects of Intestinal Parasite Infections on Cardiovascular Functions

Background: Since Intestinal parasites have ability to allergenity, malabsorption and psychosocial disorders of the host. They might also interfere cardiovascular function directly or indirectly depending on physiological status of the host, and content and variety of parasitic exposure. The aim of our study was to investigate whether helminths or protozoon infections may interfere cardiovascular functions in anesthetized rats. Material and Method: Three groups of individually caged Sprague-Dawley female rats, control (n:15), with helminths (n:11) and with protozoons (n:11), weighing 200–220 g were anesthetized with Xylasine HCl (10 mg/kg) + Ketamine HCl (50 mg/kg) (i.p) and placed on a warmed surgical plate to maintain body temperature at 37 ± 0.5 °C throughout the experiment. The femoral artery was catheterised with PE 50 tubing for monitoring cardiovascular parameters (intra-arterial systolic pressure-ST, diastolic pressure-DT, mean arterial pressure-MAP and heart rate-HR) via a pressure transducer connected to a data acquisition system. Cardiovascular parameters were recorded at 45 minute periods following a one-half hour stabilization period. The femoral vein was catheterised for fluid replacement via an infusion pump (25 μl/min of %0.9 NaCl). At the end of the experiment, Colon and small intestine samples were excised and put into saline filled beaker for parasitic examinations. Results: ST, DT,MAP and HR were significantly high in Helminth infected rats compared to values of the control and protozoon infected rats. But the inspected cardiovascular parameters in protozoon infected rats were not significantly different from the control's. Conclusions: Our results suggest that helminth infections but not protozoon infections have an important cardiovascular effects in rats. Thus, Helminth infections might carefully examined in especially hypertensive conditions.