Plasma P-selectin Predicts Long-term Cardiovascular Events in Hospitalized Patients with Suspected Coronary Artery Disease and Preserved Left Ventricular Function: A 10-Year Follow-Up Study

BACKGROUND: A variety of biomarkers have been investigated on their values to predict cardiovascular outcomes, such as high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), fibrinogen, troponin-I (TnI), and soluble P-selectin (sP-sel). By a design of head-to-head comparison, this study sought to figure out the long-term prognostic values of these parameters in patients hospitalized with suspected coronary artery disease. METHODS: A total of 170 patients hospitalized with suspected coronary artery disease were enrolled and followed up for an average of 10 years. sP-sel, hs-CRP, TnI, and fibrinogen levels were measured. During the follow-up period, cardiac events were recorded including cardiac death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, and acute coronary syndromes with hospitalization. RESULTS: For all 170 patients, with a median follow-up time of 9.86 ± 3.87 years, no parameter was able to significantly predict the occurrence of cardiac events. In subgroup analysis, an sP-sel of ≥ 63.5 ng/ml significantly predicted the development of all composite cardiac events only in patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction > 50% (n = 94, p = 0.04). However, the levels of hs-CRP, TnI, and fibrinogen did not have significant predictive values. Multivariate analysis also demonstrated the independent predictive value of sP-sel on all cardiac events (hazard ratio = 5.82, p = 0.02). All parameters, including sP-sel, could not demonstrate prognostic values in patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction ≤ 50% (n = 76). CONCLUSIONS: In this 10-year long-term follow-up study, sP-sel was demonstrated to have prognostic values in predicting the cardiac events in patients with preserved left ventricular systolic function.