Evaluation of C-Reactive Protein and Interleukin – 6 as Markers of Coronary Heart Disease

Abstract

Background:  Coronary heart disease (CHD) is the most common and important cause of morbidity and mortality in western population but incidence has much increased in our population also. This manifests as stable angina (SA), unstable angina (UA) myocardial infarction (MI), chronic IHD – with heart failure and sudden cardiac death. This is due to atheromatous narrowing of coronary vessels which results mainly due to hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus (DM), hypertension and cigarette smoking. Current research has revealed that atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease and not a simply due to accumulation of lipids in coronary arteries. Recent research in the developed countries is focusing on new biochemical and inflammatory markers.

Objectives:  To compare the levels of hs CRP and interleukin-6 in CHD patients and control individuals, with the aim to evaluate their association with CHD patients.

Study Design:  This is a case control analytical study. The study was carried out at Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology and Army Medical College Rawalpindi.

Material and Methods:  Eighty normotensive and non diabetic individuals comprised of 30 controls (group-A) and 50 CHD patients (group - B) were included in this study. Controls were having normal coronary angiograms. Patients were having abnormal coronary angiograms with single, double or tipple vessel disease. Levels of high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were measured by chemiluminescent immunometeric method. Serum glucose, cholesterol, triacylglycerol and urea were measured by enzymatic method. Level of serum creatinine was measured by kinetic colori-metric method.

Results:  We compared the values of serum CRP, IL-6, cholesterol and triacylglycerol of group B with control group-A and significance difference was found with p value < 0.05.

Conclusion:  Raised levels of hs C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 may have a role in the development of coronary heart disease and can be makers for CHD.

Key Words:  Coronary heart disease (CHD), stable angina (SA), unstable angina (UA), myocardial infarction (MI), Diabetes mellitus (DM), high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6).