Renal angioplasty causes a rapid transient increase in inflammatory biomarkers, but reduced levels of interleukin-6 and endothelin-1 1 month after intervention.

Objective: To examine prospectively whether inflammatory biomarkers and endothelin (ET)-1 are increased in patients with renal artery stenosis (RAS), and to investigate how treatment with percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) affects these variables during the first month after intervention.
Methods: One hundred patients with suspected RAS undergoing renal angiography were included. PTRA was performed if the trans-stenotic mean arterial pressure gradient was>or=10 mmHg. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha), neopterin, CD40 ligand (CD40L) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) were measured before, and 1 day and 1 month after PTRA (n=61) or diagnostic angiography only (n=39).
Results: At baseline there were no significant differences in inflammatory biomarkers or ET-1 levels between patients subsequently undergoing PTRA or angiography only. After angiography, IL-6 and hs-CRP had increased in both groups compared to baseline (P<0.001). At this time point hs-CRP (10.90+/-1.48 versus 6.37+/-1.61 mg/l; P<0.05) and IL-6 (13.70+/-0.94 versus 13.00+/-0.17 pg/ml; P<0.01) were higher in the PTRA group than in patients subjected to angiography only. One month after PTRA, systolic blood pressure and levels of IL-6 and ET-1 were lower than before intervention (P<0.05), whereas CD40L had increased compared to baseline (P<0.01).
Conclusion: In patients with RAS, PTRA triggers rapid transient increases in hs-CRP and IL-6; however, 1 month after PTRA, both IL-6 and ET-1 had decreased compared to before intervention, indicating beneficial effects of PTRA on inflammation and the endothelin system.