Circulating sTWEAK improves the prediction of coronary artery disease

Abstract

Objectives: Decreased concentrations of circulating soluble tumor necrosis factor-like weak inducer of apoptosis (sTWEAK) were recently reported to be associated with atherosclerosis, but there are still no data concerning its predictive performance. Design and methods: The current cross-sectional study investigates the potential of the novel atherosclerotic biomarker for the prediction of coronary artery disease (CAD). Serum sTWEAK was measured by ELISA in 76 CAD patients and 82 CAD-free subjects. Results: Serum sTWEAK concentrations were significantly lower in the patients (534.5 +/- 110.9 mu g/L) than in the controls (688.1 +/- 150.0 mu g/L, p lt 0.001), even after adjusting for different confounders (p lt 0.001). The areas under ROC curves (AUC)s calculated for logistic regression models that included different known risk factors were significantly increased when sTWEAK was added to the corresponding model (p = 0.011-0.035). Conclusions: The measurement of serum sTWEAK concentrations improves the prediction of CAD based on existing biomarkers.