Cardiac
myxoma cells have been demonstrated to produce
interleukin (IL)-6, but its role in the systemic and immunologic manifestations of patients with this
tumor is controversial. There is no evidence of any other source of such
cytokine, but here we report a case of
myxoma with systemic manifestations at diagnosis in which we evaluated the
IL-6 production by peripheral blood cells before and after surgical
tumor resection. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated by density gradient centrifugation, and the
IL-6 expression in monocytes and lymphocytes was evaluated by flow cytometry. Before surgery, 74.4% of monocytes produced
IL-6, but 1 month after surgery, a decrease in both the number of monocytes and the percentage of these cells expressing
IL-6 was found along with an improvement of systemic and immunologic manifestations. Here, we demonstrated for the first time that monocytes contribute to the elevated production of
IL-6 in patients with
myxoma.