ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is an inflammatory mediator, reaches to the high levels after ischemic heart diseases (IHD) and could be a helpful tool to predict cardiac rehabilitation (CR) outcomes. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of the circulating levels of PTX3 in prediction of CR outcomes in patients with IHD who had undergone coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). METHODS: One hundred patients who had undergone CABG were included in this study. The CR plan was started 6 weeks after CABG and then PTX3 level, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), ejection fraction (EF) and metabolic equivalent (MET) were assessed before and after the CR program. Finally, all gathered data were analyzed using SPSS version 22. RESULTS: After a 3-month course of CR program, EF, MET, PTX3 and hs-CRP values changed. Statistically significant changes were observed in EF, MET and PTX3 values (P < 0.05) after the CR program and no statistically significant changes were seen in hs-CRP value (P = 0.546) at the end of CR program. Correlations between EF levels and MET with pre-PTX3 levels were also assessed and most changes were observed in the group with pre-PTX3 level more than 0.40 ng/dL. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that a regular sufficient CR program based on exercises in IHD patients after CABG increases EF and MET levels, particularly in those patients with pre-PTX3 levels more than 0.40 ng/dL.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Pentraxins are a superfamily of multifunctional conserved proteins, some of which are components of the humoral arm of innate immunity and behave as functional ancestors of antibodies. They are divided into short (C reactive protein) and long pentraxins (pentraxin 3; PTX3). We investigated the diagnostic values of systematic arterial and coronary sinus (PTX3) in developing prediction models for estimating pretest probability of coronary artery disease (CAD) among an intermediate-risk population of patients with chronic stable angina. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis. SETTING: Referral cardiology hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with chronic stable angina, without evidence of previous CAD if they were referred for angiography. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: All participants underwent diagnostic angiography. Prevalence rate ratio (PRR) of angiographically-determined coronary artery stenosis was separately examined in association with coronary sinus and femoral artery PTX3 concentrations using a general linear model. Duke treadmill score (DTS) was derived from the results of treadmill exercise cardiac stress testing. PTX3 data were collected in 100 patients with DTS-determined intermediate-risk chronic stable angina (aged 56.1 (1.1) years, 51 female). RESULTS: Both coronary sinus (PRR: 2.33, 95% CIs 1.64 to 3.31) and femoral artery PTX3 (PRR: 2.09, 95% CIs 1.46 to 2.97) independently predicted the prevalence rate of coronary artery involved with stenosis independent of the established CAD risk factors. Femoral artery PTX3 was highly correlated with coronary sinus PTX3 (ß=0.8, 95% CIs 0.66 to 0.94; p value<0.001). When we added femoral artery PTX3 to the predictive models incorporating traditional CAD risk factors, net reclassification improvement indices were 40% (cutpoint-free) and 15% (cutpoint-based). In the presence of PTX3, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was no longer protective against CAD. CONCLUSIONS: Gathering information on systemic arterial PTX3 may help more accurately reclassify DTS-determined patients with intermediate-risk chronic stable angina into more appropriate risk categories. PTX3 possibly, at least in part, mediates the protective effect on CAD of HDL-C.