Oxidative Stress as a Reliable Biomarker of Carotid Plaque Instability: A Pilot Study

• Main Authors: Norbert Svoboda (Author), Karolina Kočí (Author), Anna Seidlová (Author), Václav Mandys (Author), Jiří Suttnar (Author), Alžběta Hlaváčková (Author), Ondřej Kučerka (Author), David Netuka (Author), Martin Malý (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: MDPI AG, 2023-02-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.

Summary

<b>Background:</b> Predicting stroke risk in patients with carotid artery stenosis (CS) remains challenging. Circulating biomarkers seem to provide improvements with respect to risk stratification. <b>Methods:</b> Study patients who underwent carotid endarterectomy were categorized into four groups according to symptomatology and compared as follows: symptomatic with asymptomatic patients; and asymptomatic patients including amaurosis fugax (AF) (asymptomatic + AF group) with patients with a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or brain stroke (BS) (hemispheric brain stroke group). Carotid specimens were histologically analyzed and classified based on the American Heart Classification (AHA) standard. As a marker of OS, the plasma levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured. Comparisons of MDA plasma levels between groups were analyzed. <b>Results</b>: In total, 35 patients were included in the study. There were 22 (63%) patients in the asymptomatic group and 13 (37%) in the symptomatic group. Atheromatous plaque (<i>p =</i> 0.03) and old hemorrhage (<i>p =</i> 0.05), fibrous plaque (<i>p =</i> 0.04), myxoid changes (<i>p =</i> 0.02), plaques without hemorrhage (<i>p =</i> 0.04), significant neovascularization (<i>p =</i> 0.04) and AHA classification (<i>p =</i> 0.006) had significant correlations with clinical presentation. There were 26 (74%) patients in the asymptomatic group and 9 (26%) in the hemispheric brain stroke group. Atheromatous plaque (<i>p =</i> 0.02), old hemorrhage (<i>p =</i> 0.05) and plaques without neovascularization (<i>p =</i> 0.02), fibrous plaque (<i>p =</i> 0.03), plaques without hemorrhage (<i>p =</i> 0.02) and AHA classification (<i>p =</i> 0.01) had significant correlations with clinical presentation. There was no significant difference between symptomatic and asymptomatic groups with respect to MDA plasma levels (<i>p</i> = 0.232). A significant difference was observed when MDA plasma levels were compared to asymptomatic + AF and the hemispheric stroke group (<i>p</i> = 0.002). <b>Conclusions</b>: MDA plasma level correlates with the risk of hemispheric stroke (TIA or BS) and is a reliable marker of plaque vulnerability in carotid artery stenosis.

Item Description

10.3390/antiox12020506
2076-3921