The ethnicity-specific association of biomarkers with the angiographic severity of coronary artery disease

BACKGROUND: Risk factor burden and clinical characteristics of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) differ among ethnic groups. We related biomarkers to CAD severity in Caucasians, Chinese, Indians and Malays. METHODS: In the Dutch-Singaporean UNICORN coronary angiography cohort (n = 2033) we compared levels of five cardiovascular biomarkers: N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), cystatin C (CysC), myeloperoxidase (MPO) and high-sensitivity troponin I (hsTnI). We assessed ethnicity-specific associations of biomarkers with CAD severity, quantified by the SYNTAX score. RESULTS: Adjusted for baseline differences, NTproBNP levels were significantly higher in Malays than in Chinese and Caucasians (72.1 vs. 34.4 and 41.1 pmol/l, p