Comparative assessment of haptoglobin and C-reactive protein levels in patients with different degrees of coronary atherosclerosis and cardiovascular risk

Screening for early, including hemodynamically insignificant, stages of coronary atherosclerosis is an urgent medical and social problem due to the high cost, low availability, and invasiveness of imaging methods for studying the cardiovascular system. The search for accessible laboratory biomarkers in order to identify priority groups for further instrumental studies of the heart remains a promising area of scientific research.

Aim. To compare the levels of haptoglobin and C-reactive protein in patients with different degrees of coronary atherosclerosis and different cardiovascular risks.

Material and methods. The study included 64 patients, who were divided into three groups based on the severity of coronary artery atherosclerosis: Group 1 – without atherosclerosis (n = 28), Group 2 – with non-stenotic atherosclerosis (stenosis 25–74%, n = 15), and Group 3 – with stenotic atherosclerosis (stenosis ≥ 75%, n = 21). The groups were comparable in terms of gender, age, and body mass index. The levels of haptoglobin and CRP in the blood serum were determined. The obtained data were processed using statistical packages Excel, Statistica 10.0.

Results. Patients included in the three study groups, formed according to the degree of coronary atherosclerosis, did not differ significantly in terms of haptoglobin levels (p = 0.1) and CRP levels (p = 0.4). When the subjects were re-grouped according to their cardiovascular risk category (moderate, high, and very high), differences in CRP levels were found (p = 0.04): patients with moderate cardiovascular risk had lower CRP levels compared to patients with high (p = 0.03) and very high (p = 0.03) risk.

Conclusion. The absence of significant differences in the levels of haptoglobin and CRP in patients with different degrees of coronary atherosclerosis (without stenoses, non-stenotic, and stenotic) casts doubt on their use as markers of stenotic vascular damage in the heart. However, the level of CRP showed statistically significant differences depending on the category of cardiovascular risk, which suggests its potential for risk reclassification.

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