PLASMA FIBRONECTIN LEVEL IN ACUTE NYOCARDIAL INFARCTION BY Nabil A. Khattab MD, Metwalli El-Shahawi MD, Yehia Saddik MD, Alaa Ibrahim MD, Atif Ibrahim MD, Mohammed Shawki MD. and Sayed H. Madbolly* MD ; it FROM Department of Internal Medicine, Benha Faculty of Medicine and Department of Clinical Biochemistry , Al-Azhar Faculty of Medicine ABSTRACT : This study was carried out on twenty patients with acute myocardial infarction (10 had anterior and 10 had inferior infarction) in a trial to find out any relationship between plasma fibronectin level and severity of myocardial infarction. Plasma fibronectin was significantly reduced on the 1§£, 2njJ , 3rj| and ] 8th postinfarction days and raised by the 20th day. However, marked diminution was more noticeable in anterior compared to inferior infarction. Plasma fibronectin positively correlated with the ejection fraction and fractional shortening and negatively correlated with the level of cardiac enzymes, with leucocytosis and ESR and with the size of infarction. Therefore, the degree of diminution of plasma fibronectin can be considered as a parameter reflecting the severity of myocardial involvement. On the other hand its rise signifies myocardial healing. However, trial for evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of exogenous fibronectin in promoting healing of acute myocardial infarction might be recommended as a future research.