title: Association of Big Endothelin-1 with Coronary Artery Calcification.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The coronary artery calcification (CAC) is clinically considered as one of the important predictors of atherosclerosis. Several studies have confirmed that endothelin-1(ET-1) plays an important role in the process of atherosclerosis formation. The aim of this study was to investigate whether big ET-1 is associated with CAC.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 510 consecutively admitted patients from February 2011 to May 2012 in Fu Wai Hospital were analyzed. All patients had received coronary computed tomography angiography and then divided into two groups based on the results of coronary artery calcium score (CACS). The clinical characteristics including traditional and calcification-related risk factors were collected and plasma big ET-1 level was measured by ELISA. Patients with CAC had significantly elevated big ET-1 level compared with those without CAC (0.5 ± 0.4 vs. 0.2 ± 0.2, P<0.001). In the multivariate analysis, big ET-1 (Tertile 2, HR = 3.09, 95% CI 1.66-5.74, P <0.001, Tertile3 HR = 10.42, 95% CI 3.62-29.99, P<0.001) appeared as an independent predictive factor of the presence of CAC. There was a positive correlation of the big ET-1 level with CACS (r = 0.567, p<0.001). The 10-year Framingham risk (%) was higher in the group with CACS>0 and the highest tertile of big ET-1 (P<0.01). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the big ET-1 level in predicting CAC was 0.83 (95% CI 0.79-0.87, p<0.001), with a sensitivity of 70.6% and specificity of 87.7%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The data firstly demonstrated that the plasma big ET-1 level was a valuable independent predictor for CAC in our study.
authors.affiliation: Division of Dyslipidemia, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fu Wai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Bei Li Shi Road 167, Beijing, 100037, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Qing
authors.affiliation: Division of Dyslipidemia, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fu Wai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Bei Li Shi Road 167, Beijing, 100037, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Lin
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Division of Dyslipidemia, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fu Wai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Bei Li Shi Road 167, Beijing, 100037, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Xingtai people's hospital, Red Star Street 16, Hebei, 054000, China.
authors.forename: Yi-Lin
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Division of Dyslipidemia, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fu Wai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Bei Li Shi Road 167, Beijing, 100037, China.
authors.forename: Rui-Xia
authors.initials: RX
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Division of Dyslipidemia, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fu Wai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Bei Li Shi Road 167, Beijing, 100037, China.
authors.forename: Yuan-Lin
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Division of Dyslipidemia, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fu Wai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Bei Li Shi Road 167, Beijing, 100037, China.
authors.forename: Sha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Division of Dyslipidemia, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fu Wai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Bei Li Shi Road 167, Beijing, 100037, China.
authors.forename: Na-Qiong
authors.initials: NQ
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Division of Dyslipidemia, State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fu Wai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Bei Li Shi Road 167, Beijing, 100037, China.
authors.forename: Jian-Jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002114:Calcinosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002118:Calcium / Q000032:analysis; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D019332:Endothelin-1 / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis
chemical_list: D019332:Endothelin-1; D002118:Calcium