This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Lung-specific biomarker predictive of CV morbidity, mortality

Hill J. Eur Heart J. 2011;doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehr124.

Issue: July 2011

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Surfactant protein-D, a protein located in human lung plasma, was shown to be a strong predictor of CV mortality and morbidity in a recent study, leading researchers to call it a promising biomarker to link lung inflammation to CVD-related injury.

In the study, the group of researchers from Canada and the United States measured plasma surfactant protein-D (SP-D) levels in 806 patients who also underwent coronary angiography to determine the predictive value of CV mortality. Serum SP-D levels were also assessed in a replication cohort (n=4,468) of former and current smokers who did not have a known history of CAD.

During a mean follow-up of 12.82 years, 240 patients (30%) died in the plasma SP-D measured group. Among those who died, levels of plasma SP-D were substantially higher than those who survived (median 85.4 vs. 64.8 ng/mL; P<.0001). Specifically, patients in the highest quartile of SP-D were 4.4 times more likely to die of CVD (P<.0001) compared with those in the lowest quintile, a finding independent of age, sex and plasma levels.

For patients in the replication cohort, 327 patients (6.9%) died during a median follow-up of 13.83 years. SP-D levels were also found to be elevated in those who died, as well as in those who were hospitalized (median 99.8 vs. 90.6 ng/mL; P=.0001).

“These data implicate lung inflammation in the pathogenesis of heart and blood vessel disease and raise the possibility of using this protein as a biomarker to risk stratify CVD patients above and beyond traditional risk factors such as serum cholesterol and CRP,” the researchers concluded. “Since serum SP-D rises with lung injury (as with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), raised systemic levels of SP-D in CVD patients should alert the practicing clinicians to consider chronic airway diseases, which can be objectively verified using simple spirometry.”

Follow CardiologyToday.com on Twitter.