title: Interleukin-6 in the prediction of primary cardiovascular events in diabetes patients: results from the ESTHER study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6) is increased in diabetes patients who are in general also at greater cardiovascular risk. Thus, we investigated whether IL-6 is associated with incident primary cardiovascular events and improves risk prediction in diabetes patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Serum IL-6 levels were measured at baseline in 1072 diabetic participants of the ESTHER study. During 5 years of follow-up, 84 experienced a primary cardiovascular event (myocardial infarction, stroke, cardiovascular death). Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), measures of model discrimination and calibration were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  High IL-6 levels were associated with increased event risk (adjusted HR 1.90 [95% CI 1.06-3.40] for top versus bottom tertile; p = 0.011). The addition of IL-6 to models containing Framingham score variables did not substantially improve prediction.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although serum IL-6 was significantly associated with cardiovascular risk, it did not substantially improve risk prediction above traditional risk factors in a diabetic cohort.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Clinical Diabetology, German Diabetes Center, Leibniz Center for Diabetes Research at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Auf'm Hennekamp 65, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. christian.herder@ddz.uni-duesseldorf.de
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Herder
authors.forename: Ben
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schöttker
authors.forename: Dietrich
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rothenbacher
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roden
authors.forename: Hubert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kolb
authors.forename: Heiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brenner
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D015331:Cohort Studies; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology* / Q000401:mortality; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; C508600:IL6 protein, human; D015850:Interleukin-6