This study was designed to simultaneously measure plasma levels of multiple cytokines in patients with coronary artery disease and to evaluate their ability to predict long-term prognosis.
The study enrolled 158 consecutive patients with angiographically identified stable coronary artery disease. Using the Luminex micro-beads array system, we simultaneously measured plasma levels of the following 10 cytokines: interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and γ-interferon (IFN-γ).
None of the 10 cytokine levels as well as high-sensitive C reactive protein (hs-CRP) was correlated with the severity of coronary artery disease. During a 7-year follow-up period, cardiovascular events occurred in 56 patients (35 % ). Multi-vessel disease, diabetes, and high levels of all of the 10 measured cytokines and hs-CRP were significant predictors of cardiovascular events in univariate analysis. However, multivariate analysis using multi-vessel disease, diabetes and the levels of all of 10 cytokines and hs-CRP showed that the only independent predictor was IL-8 (RR, 2.98; 95 % CI, 1.64–7.24; P = 0.0001).
IL-8 was the only cytokine that predicted cardiovascular events independent of the other 9 cytokines and hs-CRP. Since IL-8 is a neutrophil chemokine, these results suggest that neutrophil activation may be related to the occurrence of cardiovascular events.