Differential associations between blood biomarkers of inflammation, oxidation, and lipid metabolism with varying forms of coronary atherosclerotic plaque as quantified by coronary CT angiography

Although epidemiologic data link biomarkers of cardiovascular risk with incident and prevalent coronary artery disease, exact anatomic relationships between biomarkers and coronary atherosclerosis as measured by coronary CT angiography remain unclear. Patients with acute chest pain who ultimately had no evidence of acute coronary syndrome underwent contrast-enhanced 64-slice coronary CT angiography to determine presence, extent and composition of coronary atherosclerotic plaque. We determined the differences in levels of blood biomarkers measured at the time of the CT scan between different CT-based atherosclerotic plaque groups. Among 313 patients (mean age: 51.6 ± 11 years, 62% male) high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and matrix metalloproteinase-2 were associated with the extent of calcified plaque (P = 0.03 and P < 0.001), while hs-CRP and apolipoprotein A1 were associated with the extent of non-calcified plaque (P = 0.03 and P = 0.004; respectively). Despite a generally lower risk profile, subjects with exclusively non-calcified plaque had significantly higher levels of hs-CRP and oxidized low-density lipoprotein (P = 0.01 and P = 0.03; respectively) and lower levels of adiponectin (P = 0.03) when compared to subjects with calcified plaque (n = 130, 42%). Biomarkers reflecting inflammation, vascular remodeling, oxidation, and lipoprotein metabolism maybe associated with different patterns of coronary atherosclerosis as quantified by coronary CT angiography.