Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Cardiology

Coronary artery disease is a major cause of death worldwide. Acute coronary syndrome includes unstable angina, non-ST segment elevation myocardial infarction and ST segment elevation myocardial infarction. By activating immune cells or a direct action on the vascular wall, leptin may affect the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis. We investigated whether plasma leptin concentration is associated with coronary artery disease, with particular focus on the relationship between plasma leptin and the development of an acute coronary syndrome. Plasma leptin was measured in 50 patients with acute coronary syndrome. Their results were compared with those of 50 matched controls. Plasma leptin levels were significantly higher in the acute coronary syndrome group compared to the controls (4.8 vs. 4.5 ng/mL, P = 0.001). These findings suggest that plasma leptin levels may be a useful marker of systemic inflammation, and measurement of plasma leptin may be helpful in assessing the risk of developing coronary heart disease. In patients with acute coronary syndrome, significant elevation of discharge leptin levels compared to admission levels was invariably associated with adverse in-hospital outcome compared to patients who did not experience this outcome (5.93 from 5.88 vs. 4.47 from 5.63 ng/dL, P = 0.032). Elevation of the follow up leptin levels compared to the discharge levels in patients who had short-term cardiovascular events, although was not statistically significant, could also be a risk for having short-term CVEs (4.9 from 4.4 vs. 4.5 from 5.9, P = 0.61). So leptin connotes a poor prognosis with excess morbidity and mortality

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