Relationship between pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A and unstable plaque of coronary artery in patients with coronary heart disease

Objective To investigate whether serum pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A(PAPP-A) and C-reactive protein(CRP) levels are related to angiographic morphology of coronary lesions in patients with acute coronary syndrome(ACS).Methods ACS patients diagnosed by coronary angiography were divided into unstable angina(group UA,60 cases) and acute miocardial imfarctiom(group AMI,30 cases).Group SA was the patients with stable angina(60 cases) and 30 normal controls were taken as group C.Serum PAPP-A and CRP were measured by ELISA and immunoassay.Results Serum PAPP-A and CRP were(25.4±6.8)mg/L and (4.7±1.3)mg/L in group UA,(26.3±5.6)mg/L and(5.0±1.3)mg/L in group AMI,which were all significantly higher than(9.6±2.1)mg/L and(1.4±0.4)mg/L in group SA and(8.5±2.8)mg/L and(1.4±0.4)mg/L in group C(P0.01).Serum PAPP-A level was positively correlated to CRP(r=0.54,P0.01).Serum PAPP-A and CRP levels were all positively correlated with complex coronary stenosis numbers(r1=0.55,r2=0.68,P0.01).Conclusion The increases of serum PAPP-A and CRP levels indicate unstability of coronary artery plaque,which may be the markers for activity of coronary artery disease.