Cardiovascular Risk Predicted by Test Measuring HDL Proteins

The association of SAA (HDL) and SP-B (HDL) with cardiovascular outcomes was assessed in multivariate regression models adjusted for known clinical risk factors.

High levels of SAA in the HDL were associated with an increased occurrence of heart attacks, while high levels of SP-B in the HDL acted as a marker for a generally increased risk of mortality. This discovery could change the evaluation of HDL. Clinical practice currently only measures the amount of cholesterol in the HDL (known as the HDL-C) and from which the protective effect against future cardiovascular disease is derived. This relationship may hold true for the healthy population. More recent studies have shown, however, that in many chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus or in patients receiving dialysis, the quantity of HDL-C in the blood cannot be used as a prognostic marker.

The authors concluded that the HDL-C value continues to remain important, however the new test will also in future allow a much more precise risk prediction for cardiovascular diseases, allowing therapy to be commenced much earlier, for example through a modified lifestyle, in order to decisively improve the overall prognosis. In patients with diabetes on hemodialysis, SAA (HDL) and SP-B (HDL) were related to cardiac events and all-cause mortality, respectively, and they were independent of HDL cholesterol. The study was published in the November 2014 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

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