Endothelial lipase plasma levels are increased in both sexes in stable coronary artery disease and only in women with acute coronary syndrome but not associated with the severity of coronary artery disease.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether endothelial lipase (EL) plasma levels are increased in stable coronary artery disease (sCAD) and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients, as well as to test the association of EL plasma levels and the severity of CAD and sex.


METHODS
The study was performed as a single-center, cross-sectional, observational research on 72 sCAD and 187 ACS patients in the Sisters of Charity University Hospital Centre, Zagreb, Croatia, between December 1, 2011 and December 1, 2012. EL plasma levels were measured using ELISA.


RESULTS
EL plasma levels were significantly higher in sCAD patients (median 311.3 pg/mL, interquartile range [IQR] 250.4-422.6 pg/mL) than in ACS patients (median=258.7 pg/mL, IQR=162.1-356.0 pg/mL; P<0.001). EL levels in female ACS patients were significantly higher (median 314.5 pg/mL, IQR 218.3-420.8 pg/mL) than in male ACS patients (median 225.4 pg/mL, IQR 148.7320.1 pg/mL; P<0.001) and similar to the EL levels in the sCAD patients. There was no significant correlation between EL plasma levels and the GENSINI score and between EL plasma levels and the number of atherosclerotic coronary artery segments in either the ACS (rho=-0.09, P=0.247; rho=0.12, P=0.106, respectively) or sCAD group (rho=0.04, P=0.771; rho=0.06, P=0.643, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that EL plasma levels discriminate male but not female patients with different clinical presentations of CAD, as well as female and male ACS patients. EL plasma levels are not significantly correlated with CAD severity.
Matias
M
Trbušić
Ines
I
Potočnjak
Beate
B
Tiran
Tomislava
T
Bodrožić-Džakić
Milan
M
Milošević
Vesna
V
Degoricija
Saša Frank, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Center of Molecular Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria, sasa.frank@medunigraz.at.
Saša
S
Frank
D054058:Acute Coronary Syndrome / Q000097:blood*; D000368:Aged; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000097:blood*; D017523:Croatia; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008049:Lipase / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors
C410382:LIPG protein, human; D008049:Lipase