Ischaemia-modified albumin in pulmonary hypertension.
BACKGROUND
Pulmonary hypertension (PH) may be associated with subendocardial ischaemia. We investigated whether ischaemia-modified albumin (IMA), an established marker of ischaemia, is elevated in stable patients with PH.


METHODS
We studied 32 patients with PH and an equal number of age-matched normal volunteers. We assessed serum IMA levels with the albumin cobalt-binding test.


RESULTS
Patients' mean +/- SD (range) pulmonary arterial pressure was 56 +/- 12 (33-73) mmHg and their exercise capacity was 394 +/- 145 (121-688) m in the 6-min walk test. IMA was 92 +/- 14 (69-115) U ml(-1) in the patient group and 93 +/- 9.4 (76-122) U ml(-1) in the control group with no significant difference between the two (p = 0.85), although almost one-third of the patients had detectable troponin-I.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that IMA, a marker of ischaemia, does not differ in patients with advanced clinically stable PH compared with normal subjects.
Sbarouni
Eftihia
E
Department of Cardiology, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center, Athens, Greece. esbarouni@yahoo.gr <esbarouni@yahoo.gr>
Georgiadou
Panagiota
P
Manginas
Athanassios
A
Panagiotakos
Demosthenes
D
Karavolias
George K
GK
Voudris
Vassilis
V
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000418:Albumins / Q000378:metabolism; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D001794:Blood Pressure; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004452:Echocardiography; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006976:Hypertension, Pulmonary / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000473:pathology*; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000096:biosynthesis*
D000418:Albumins; D015415:Biomarkers; D012709:Serum Albumin