Novel Inflammatory Biomarkers as Additional Value to Traditional Risk-factors in Cardiovascular Risk Stratification

Abstract

BACKGROUND:: There is a growing interest in the possible role of inflammatory biomarkers, such as interleukins, chemokines, growth factors, and acute-phase proteins, in cardiovascular risk-stratification.
 AIM: The aim of the study was to determine a possible correlation between the subjects’ cardiovascular risk profile and various inflammatory markers and to assess the sole use of IL-6 in CVD risk prediction.
 MATERIALS AND METHODS: Seventy-five healthy subjects participated. EUROSCORE, lipid, glycemic, and inflammatory markers were analyzed. Сhi-square test, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Mann–Whitney, and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used. Significance was determined at <0.05.
 RESULTS: A multivariate analysis revealed 12 markers to be independently associated with CVD risk – LDL-C, TG, ApoB, HbA1c, hsCRP, IL-6, and IL-1A as markers of higher, and HDL-C, IL-4, Il-10, VEGF, and EGF as markers of lower CVD risk. IL-6 levels > 1 pg/ml were positively correlated with female gender, age > 55 years, EUROSCORE ≥ 3, risk age, SBP, hsCRP > 2 mg/L, and IL-2 (p = 0.025, p = 0.013, p = 0.025, p = 0.011, p = 0.026, p = 0.046, and p = 0.018). Except for total CVD risk and risk age, the same variables were identified to be independently associated with IL-6.
 CONCLUSION: Inflammatory biomarkers, especially hsCRP and IL-6, have a statistically significant, added predictive power in cardiovascular risk stratification.