The relationship between plasma pentraxin-3 levels and coronary heart disease severity in Syrian patients

Background and Aim: Pentraxin 3 is an inflammatory protein involved in the development of endothelial injury, which belongs to the long pentraxins subfamily that are produced and secreted locally from the inflammation site in the vascular endothelium as well as from unstable atherosclerotic plaques that increase the risk of developing coronary heart disease. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the plasma levels of pentraxin 3 and its association with assessing the risk and severity of coronary heart disease. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study included 88 Syrian individuals who underwent an exploratory cardiac catheterization and were divided into two groups: (I) a group of patients diagnosed with coronary heart diseases (n=64) and (II) a group including individuals without cardiovascular diseases as a control group (n=24) based on Syntax and Gensini scales to determine the severity and risk of coronary heart diseases. Plasma levels of pentraxin 3 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 27 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA), and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Plasma pentraxin 3 levels were higher in the patient group than in the controls (P < 0.001), and increased plasma pentraxin 3 levels were associated with increased Gensini (r = 0.862) (P = 0.001) and Syntax (r = 0.669) (P = 0.006) scores which reflect the severity of vascular damage. Conclusions: Pentraxin 3 levels increase with the development of coronary heart disease and correlate with the results of exploratory cardiac catheterization assessment, thus it can be considered a potential biomarker for evaluating and predicting high risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.