title: YKL-40: a new biomarker in cardiovascular disease?
abstract: Cardiovascular disease in the form of coronary artery disease is the most common cause of death in western countries. Early treatment with stabilizing drugs and mechanical revascularization by percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary bypass surgery has reduced the mortality significantly. But in spite of improved treatments, many patients are still plagued by a high frequency of angina symptoms, hospitalizations and a poor prognosis. There is a need for new independent or supplementary biomarkers that can help to predict cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular events earlier and more precisely, and thus accompany existing biomarkers in both primary and secondary cardiovascular prevention. One such potential new biomarker is the protein YKL-40. As an independent biomarker in both cardiovascular diseases and noncardiovascular diseases, current evidence suggests YKL-40 to be most useful as a marker of disease severity, prognosis and short survival. However, future studies will evaluate whether YKL-40 can be used for monitoring of the treatment effect in different patient populations with a distinct disease diagnosis. In this article we explore present knowledge on YKL-40 as a biomarker in cardiovascular disease.
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory 2014, The Heart Centre, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital and Faculty of Health Sciences, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Anders Bruun
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Mathiasen
authors.forename: Kristoffer Mads Aaris
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Henningsen
authors.forename: Marina Jurjevna
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Harutyunyan
authors.forename: Naja Dam
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Mygind
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kastrup
mesh_terms: D054392:Adipokines; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism*; D000071451:Chitinase-3-Like Protein 1; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D037102:Lectins / Q000378:metabolism*; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D054392:Adipokines; D015415:Biomarkers; C084533:CHI3L1 protein, human; D000071451:Chitinase-3-Like Protein 1; D006023:Glycoproteins; D037102:Lectins