NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Measuring the serum myeloperoxidase level may help predict whether an apparently healthy individual is likely to experience coronary artery disease in the future, according to a report in the July 10th issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Myeloperoxidase is an immune system enzyme that is known to have various proatherogenic effects. Previous reports have shown myeloperoxidase levels to be directly related to the risk of adverse events in patients with chest pain or suspected coronary disease.
The focus of the present study was to determine if levels of the enzyme have any predictive ability in apparently healthy individuals. To this end, Dr. Matthijs Boekholdt, from the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and colleagues compared baseline levels of myeloperoxidase in 1138 healthy subjects who developed coronary disease during 8 years’ of follow-up and 2237 matched controls who did not.
Myeloperoxidase levels were predictive of future coronary disease and correlated with both C-reactive protein levels and white blood cell count. On multivariate analysis, the highest quartile of myeloperoxidase levels was associated with a 36% increased risk of coronary disease relative to the lowest quartile.
The findings indicate that myeloperoxidase levels were useful in predicting coronary disease even when LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, and C-reactive protein levels are within normal limits.
"It is clear that elevation of inflammatory markers, such as myeloperoxidase and C-reactive protein, and their interactions precede the onset of coronary artery disease by years. This underscores the potential relevance of exploration of antiinflammatory strategies," the authors conclude.
