Interleukin-18 as a predictor of future events in patients with acute coronary syndromes

The aim of this study was to assess the short- and long-term prognostic significance of interleukin-18 (IL-18) levels in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS).

In patients hospitalized with ACS (median age, 66 years; 30% females), we evaluated associations of serum IL-18 levels from day 1 (n=1261) with the short- (<3 months) and long-term (median, 7.6 years) risk of death, development of congestive heart failure (CHF), and myocardial infarction (MI). IL-18 was not significantly associated with short-term mortality. In the long term, IL-18 levels were significantly related to all-cause mortality, even after adjustment for clinical confounders (hazard ratio [HR], 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 1.07 to 1.33; P=0.002). Long-term, cardiovascular mortality was univariately related to IL-18, and the adjusted relation between noncardiovascular mortality and IL-18 was highly significant (HR, 1.36; 95% confidence interval, 1.11 to 1.67; P=0.003). IL-18 independently predicted CHF, MI, and cardiovascular death/CHF/MI in both the short and long term. Measurements from day 1 of ACS and 3 months after ACS had a similar power to predict late outcome.

The addition of the measurement of IL-18 to clinical variables improved the prediction of risk of all-cause and noncardiovascular mortality. The association between IL-18 and noncardiovascular mortality is intriguing and warrants further study.