Cardiology Letters 2019, 28(2):87-93

Significance of selected new biomarkers in diagnosis of abdominal aortic aneurysm

Farkašová Ľ¹, Rašiová M¹, Špak Ľ², Koščo M¹, Petrášová D³, Hudák M¹, Valočik G⁴

¹ Klinika angiológie VÚSCH, a. s. a LF UPJŠ, Košice

² Oddelenia invazívnej angiológie, Nemocnica Štefana Kukuru, Michalovce

³ Laboratória výskumných biomodelov LF UPJŠ, Košice

⁴ Klinika kardiológie VÚSCH, a. s. a LF UPJŠ, Košice, Slovenská republika

Aim: Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is generally accepted that risk factors and gene polymorphism of immunoregulatory genes, metalloproteinases and cytokines contribute to the formation of AAA. Our aim was to determine the concentrations of selected serum biomarkers in patients with AAA and in a control group without AAA and to determine the relationship of selected biomarkers with regards to the disease.

Methods: We evaluated selected types of novel serum biomarkers in AAA (insulin-like growth factor 1, peroxiredoxine, tenascin C, collagen IV and XVIII fragments) by ELISA in duplicate samples using commercially available kits. Serum samples were analyzed in 46 patients with AAA (mean age 71.45 ± 7.5 years) with documented abdominal aortic aneurysm with diameters above 30 mm and 35 controls without AAA (mean age 66.46 ± 10.1 years).

Results: AAA patients had a significantly increased collagen type XVIII concentration compared to a control group without AAA (60.23 ± 42.03 ng/ml vs. 35.0 ± 30.44 ng/ml; p = 0.004). Other biomarker concentrations did not differ significantly between groups. We identified three factors affecting the incidence of AAA: higher age, BMI, and collagen XVIII concentration, all those three factors significantly increased the risk of coincidence of AAA (p = 0.012; p = 0.05; p = 0.008). In our study, age was the only independent predictor increasing abdominal aortic aneurysm. The risk of AAA increases approximately by 7% with each year of patient life.

Conclusion: In the case of abdominal aortic aneurysm, basement-membrane components undergo structural alterations, particularly collagen IV and XVIII. Based on this preliminary analysis of a small number of subjects, patients with AAA had a significantly increased level of serum type XVIII collagen. Hope remains with the use of serum biomarkers which can be helpful in explaining the pathological processes of AAA existence and progression and allow early and targeted treatment of potentially at-risk patients.

Keywords: abdominal aortic aneurysm; biomarkers; risk factors

Published: February 1, 2019  Show citation