The Association of Serum Chemerin Levels with Coronary Plaque Burden Assessed by Intravascular Ultrasound in Patients with Chronic Coronary Syndrome

Background: Chemerin has emerged as a proinflammatory adipokine implicated in atherosclerotic processes. Yet, its connection with coronary plaque burden in the setting of chronic coronary syndrome (CCS) has not been comprehensively studied. This study aims to examine the association between serum chemerin concentrations and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS)-based assessment of coronary plaque burden in CCS cases. Patients and Methods: This prospective case–control investigation included 80 cases undergoing elective coronary angiography – 50 with de novo atherosclerotic lesions (cases) and 30 with angiographically normal coronaries (controls). Serum chemerin was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Assessment of plaque burden was performed with IVUS, whereas angiographic severity was evaluated by applying the Gensini, SYNTAX, and severity scoring systems. Results: Cases exhibited substantially elevated serum chemerin levels relative to controls (median: 346.6 vs. 93 ng/mL; P < 0.001). The mean plaque burden assessed by IVUS was 72 ± 16%. Chemerin concentrations were positively correlated with the severity score ( r = 0.63, P < 0.001), Gensini score ( r = 0.48, P = 0.001), and IVUS-derived plaque burden ( r = 0.71, P < 0.001). Receiver-operating characteristic analysis demonstrated excellent diagnostic accuracy for chemerin in identifying CCS (area under the curve = 0.948; sensitivity 90%, specificity 100% at a cutoff >155 ng/mL). In multivariate analysis, chemerin was the strongest independent predictor of CCS (odds ratio = 1.047; 95% confidence interval: 1.019–1.075; P = 0.001) and plaque burden (β = 0.096; P < 0.001). Conclusions: Serum chemerin is a valuable noninvasive biomarker for identifying cases with high-risk atherosclerotic disease; however, no long-term follow-up data were available in this study.