Long- and short-term association of low-grade systemic inflammation with cardiovascular mortality in the LURIC study.

BACKGROUND

The present study aimed to evaluate biomarkers representing low-grade systemic inflammation and their association with cardiovascular mortality in the Ludwigshafen Risk and Cardiovascular Health (LURIC) study.

METHODS

The included 3134 consecutive patients underwent coronary angiography between June 1997 and May 2001 with a median follow-up of 9.9 years. Plasma levels of IL-6, and acute-phase reactants serum amyloid A (SAA) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured. SAA and IL-6 polymorphisms were genotyped.

RESULTS

During a median observation time of 9.9 years, 949 deaths (30.3%) occurred, of these 597 (19.2%) died from cardiovascular causes. High plasma levels of IL-6, CRP and SAA were associated with unstable CAD, as well as established risk factors including type 2 diabetes mellitus, smoking, low glomerular filtration rate, low TGs and low HDL-C. After adjusting for established cardiovascular risk markers and the other two inflammatory markers, SAA was found to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular mortality after a short-term follow-up (6 months-1 year) with a HR per SD of 1.41. IL-6 was identified as an independent risk factor for long-term follow-up (3, 5, and 9.9 years) with HRs per SD of 1.21, 1.22 and 1.18. CRP lost significance after adjustment. Although 6 out of 27 SAA SNPs were significantly associated with SAA plasma concentrations, the genetic risk score was not associated with cardiovascular mortality.

CONCLUSIONS

The present findings from the large, prospective LURIC cohort underline the importance of inflammation in CAD and the prognostic relevance of inflammatory biomarkers that independently predict cardiovascular mortality.