Measurement of novel adipokine visfatin in young patients with acute myocardial infarction. Clinical testing of a new ELISA.

OBJECTIVES

Adipose tissue produces a number of adipokines that have metabolic effect. Visfatin is a recently discovered adipokine whose concentration in plasma increases in obesity. It is also a proinflammatory mediator that promotes atherosclerosis and plays a role in plaque destabilization. The aim of this study was to evaluate an assay for the determination of visfatin in human plasma and to investigate its clinical relevance as a marker of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in a young population (Men under 45 y, Women under 55 y).

DESIGN AND METHODS

We clinically tested a sandwich ELISA assay in young individuals with acute myocardial infarction (n=36) vs. a control group (n=21). The control sample was a healthy proband without inflammation, hepatic or renal injury and under 55 years of age.

RESULTS

Visfatin in plasma was able to differentiate the control group from young patients with acute myocardial infarction (5 vs. 27 ng/L). Visfatin in the plasma of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) probands, correlated in individuals with acute coronary syndrome was related to plasma glucose (r=0.47; P=0.01), type 2 diabetes mellitus (r=0.65; P=0.01), plasma creatinine concentration (r=0.3, P=0.02), hsCRP (r=0.29; P=0.03), BMI values (r=0.18; P=0.04), triglycerides (r=0.5; P=0.01) and NT-proBNP (r=0.21; P=0.04). In healthy subjects, these relations were not found. ROC analysis: visfatin cut-off concentration was 20 ng/L with a sensitivity of 84% and a specificity of 90%. The area under the curve (AUC) of cTNI was 0.96, the AUC of visfatin was 0.96. Thus, there was no difference.

CONCLUSION

We conclude that visfatin in serum may be a new independent potential marker of AMI.