Biomarkers Identify Patients with Peripheral Ruptured Atherosclerotic Lesions

By Labmedica staff writers
Posted on 04 Aug 2008

A two-analyte biomarker set was able to discriminate between patients with peripheral ruptured atherosclerotic lesions and patients with peripheral stable plaque.

Discovered by BG Medicine (Waltham, MA, USA), a life-sciences company focused on the development of novel diagnostics, the two biomarkers, E1 and E2, were studied at the department of pathology, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM; The Netherlands) in The Netherlands. The biomarkers were able to discriminate between patients with peripheral ruptured atherosclerotic lesions and patients with peripheral stable plaque with 100% specificity and 76% sensitivity.

The biomarker set was further tested on a validation series of patients with peripheral atherosclerotic lesions, coronary artery disease, and healthy controls. Ninety-three percent of patients with an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) tested positive for the biomarkers, whereas stable angina patients tested negative. In addition, 90% of AMI patients who initially tested negative for troponin T upon hospital admission, tested positive for the biomarkers. Troponin T is currently used to diagnose a heart attack.

"These two biomarkers may allow for the development of a blood test which will be used to identify patients with ruptured peripheral atherosclerotic lesions and perhaps enable earlier detection of acute myocardial infarction where current tests often fail,” said Prof. Mat Daemen, one of the founders of ACS Biomarker and Scientific Director of CARIM. "Longitudinal studies are needed to determine the diagnostic and predictive value of the biomarker set for the identification of patients experiencing cardiovascular events or those at high risk for future events.”

The study was published in the July 2008 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. BG Medicine holds the exclusive worldwide license to the biomarker discovery reported in the article.

Related Links:
BG Medicine
Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht