Elevated levels of leukotriene B_4 and thromboxane B_2 distinguish chest pain of cardiac and non cardiac origin

摘要

Objective: Myocardial infarction (MI) is often preceded by severe chest pain. The use of inflammatory markers to distinguish between chest pain of cardiac and non cardiac origin are not well reported. The aim of the study was to distinguish the chest pain of non cardiac and cardiac origin by using reliable inflammatory markers.Methods: The present study enrolled 80 subjects including chest pain which lead to myocardial infarction (n=40), non-cardiac chest pain (CP) patients (n=20) and healthy volunteers (N) (n=20). Leukotriene B_4 (LTB_4) and thromboxane B_2 (TXB_2) levels were analyzed along with hs-CRP.Results: Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed LTB_4 and TXB_2 to be a good discriminator between patients with chest pain of cardiac and non cardiac in origin. The area under the curve was found to be 0.988 and 0.925 for LTB_4 and TXB_2, respectively when compared with hs-CRP. The sensitivity and specificity of LTB_4 and TXB_2 were found to be 90, 85% and 95, 90%, respectively.Conclusion: The measurement of LTB_4 and TXB_2 levels may therefore be useful to distinguish the chest pain leading to MI from that of non cardiac in origin and for the management of the disease.