Étude rétrospective évaluant le VEGF comme biomarqueur d’athérosclérose mesurée par coronarographie quantitative et ultrason intra-vasculaire
Background: The role of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF) in atherogenesis remains controversial.  By promoting inflammation and neovascularization of the atherosclerotic plaque, VEGF is hypothesized to partake in the development of atherosclerotic plaques.  However, clinical data linking VEGF to coronary atherosclerosis have been controversial. We investigated the association between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) serum levels and coronary artery disease (CAD).   Methods: We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study on data collected from 56 patients that presented with stable CAD and 112 that presented with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS).  We investigated the relationship between coronary atherosclerosis burden and serum VEGF concentration using Quantitative Coronary Angiography (QCA), and assessed plaque morphology with Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS).    Results: We found that stable CAD patients had significantly higher VEGF levels than patients with ACS. We observed a positive correlation between serum VEGF levels and the extent and severity of atherosclerotic disease measured by QCA Cumulative Coronary Stenosis Score (Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.423 and p=0.001).  In a multivariate analysis, serum VEGF levels remained a valid predictor of QCA CCSS score (p=0.003) in patients with stable CAD, with age being the only other predictor of QCA CCSS (p=0.007). Finally, using IVUS, we observed a significant positive correlation between serum VEGF levels and plaque volume (Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.381, p=0.035) as well as percent atheroma volume (Spearman correlation coefficient = 0.466, p=0.008).  Conclusion: Our findings suggest that serum VEGF could be used as a potential biomarker of atherosclerosis.
VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) coronary artery disease atherosclerosis