Serum asymmetric dimethylarginine, a novel risk marker of coronary artery disease

Abstract

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a chronic disease and a global health problem, affecting one-third of the world’s population. Recently it has been found that the traditional risk factors of CAD do not account for the total risk. One of the novel risk markers of CAD is Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA), which inhibits the enzyme nitric oxide synthase (NOS), which is required for the synthesis of nitric oxide (NO), a potent vasodilator. Increased ADMA level causes decrease in NO level which will lead to endothelial dysfunction, an underlying causative mechanism for CAD development. ADMA is found to be an independent cardiovascular risk factor. Therefore ADMA may become an additional biochemical parameter to identify those patients who are at higher risk for developing CAD, besides the traditional parameters used.To study the association between serum ADMA level with coronary artery disease.The study design is a case-control study. 80 subjects from the south Indian population between 30 to 60 years of age, of both the sexes were included in the study. Out of them, 40 individuals were angiographically proven cases of CAD from the department of cardiology and 40 healthy individuals from the master health check up department. Various parameters like lipid profile, serum ADMA, blood pressure and BMI were measured in both the groups. The data were collected and analyzed.The ADMA level was found to be significantly elevated in the case group compared with the age matched healthy controls (p value < 0.05).There is a positive correlation between serum ADMA level and coronary artery disease.