Cholesterol, albumin affect MACE risk in coronary artery disease

In patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), both total cholesterol and serum albumin levels appear to influence the risk of poor prognosis, a recent study has found.

Researchers conducted a secondary analysis of a previous retrospective, single-centre cohort study. The present analysis included 203 patients who had been newly diagnosed with CAD, in whom cholesterol and albumin concentrations were determined from medical records. The outcome of interest was major adverse cardiac events (MACEs), including all-cause mortality, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and nonfatal stroke.

Over a median follow-up of 783 days, 28 MACEs occurred; most were documented in patients with low serum albumin (n=22; <4 g/dL), while only six cases were detected in the high serum albumin group (≥4 g/dL). Fully adjusted Cox analysis revealed that serum albumin was linearly and significantly associated with MACE (hazard ratio [HR], 0.22, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.11–0.44; p<0.0001).

Moreover, dividing the patients into low vs high serum albumin groups showed that the former was associated with a more than threefold increase in the risk of MACEs (HR, 3.52, 95 percent CI, 1.30–9.54; p=0.0133).

Of note, the researchers documented a statistical effect of the interaction between total cholesterol and serum albumin on MACEs, an effect that remained significant even after adjusting for confounders (p=0.0005 for both unadjusted and adjusted analyses).

“The data of our study came from a single-centre sample, mainly elderly patients with CAD who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention,” the researchers said. “Therefore, for the extension of the research conclusions, further research is still needed.”