The roles of a novel inflammatory neopterin in subjects with coronary atherosclerotic heart disease

Coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (CHD) is currently regarded as a chronic inflammatory disease. The inflammatory cytokine neopterin (NP) is a new predictor of the stable type of atherosclerotic plague, and this study focused on the relationship between neopterin, Gensini score and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (Hs-CRP) to explore the important role of neopterin in patients with CHD. This study enrolled 176 patients into the control group and 266 patients into the experimental group. The Gensini score was used to assess the severity of the coronary lesions, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were used to measure the serum NP level, and other indicators were assessed using a fully automatic biochemical analyzer. The data were analyzed using SPSS19.0 statistical software. The serum NP level was higher in the experimental group than in the control group (132.23 +/- 6.40 ng/mL vs. 40.95 +/- 2.67 ng/ml, P<0.001). Compared with the stable angina (SA) group, the serum NP level was significantly increased in the unstable angina (UA) group (135.99 +/- 12.45 ng/mL) and the acute myocardial infarction (AMI) group (173.66 +/- 13.59 ng/mL) (P<0.05). In addition, the serum NP level was positively correlated with the Gensini score (r = 0.687, P<0.001) as well as with the level of Hs-CRP (r = 0.190, P<0.001). The serum level of NP was significantly higher in patients with CHD and was positively correlated with the severity of CHD. Thus, NP may become a new indicator for the assessment of the inflammatory response in coronary atherosclerosis. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.