Big endothelin-1 level as a predictive marker for the presence of isolated coronary artery ectasia in patients presented with chest pain

Abstract

Abstract Background Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is a common finding of coronary angiography, therefore, to find a biomarker to discriminate isolated coronary artery ectasia ICAE from obstructive coronary artery disease CAD may be important for clinical implication. Objectives The aim is to study the relationship between big ET-1 level and isolated CAE in patients presented with chest pain, undergoing coronary angiogram. Methods This study was conducted on 55 patients. They were presented by cardiac symptoms (chest pain, dyspnea, unstable and stable angina). They were subjected to coronary angiography. According to its findings, patients were classified into four different groups (ICAE; n = 15), (CAE & CAD; n = 15), (CAD; n = 15), and (Normal; n = 10). The level of big ET-1 was found to be significantly higher in the patients with ICAE compared with the other three groups (ICAE; 261±176 ng/ml, CAD + CAE; 132±29 ng/ml, CAD; 107±16 ng/ml and Normal; 109±17 ng/ml, p < 0.001, respectively). Also we found that the percentage of hypertension was significantly higher in patients with CAD group compared with ICAE group and normal coronary angiography group. Conclusion In conclusion, in our study, our data suggested that the big ET-1 level was higher in isolated CAE patients and was an independent predictor for isolated CAE. Recognizing big ET-1 as an independent predictor of isolated CAE requires multivariate analysis which was not done in our study.