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Association of serum ferritin with coronary artery disease
Yunping Zhou1, Tongtao Liu, Changwei Tian
1Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, Shandong University, PR China.
Insights
Serum ferritin shows a weak positive association with coronary artery disease (CAD) risk. Higher serum ferritin levels correlate with an increased risk of developing CAD, warranting further investigation.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Medicine
- Clinical Biochemistry
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Conflicting published results exist regarding the association between serum ferritin and coronary artery disease (CAD).
- A comprehensive assessment is needed to clarify the relationship between serum ferritin levels and CAD risk.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between serum ferritin levels and the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD).
- To evaluate the concentration-risk relationship using both case-control and meta-analysis approaches.
Main Methods:
- A hospital-based case-control study involving 258 CAD cases and 282 healthy controls.
- Restricted cubic spline (RCS) function used to analyze the concentration-risk association.
- A meta-analysis of 20 outcomes, with fixed or random effects determined by homogeneity tests.
Main Results:
- The case-control study indicated a 4.2% increase in CAD risk for every 50 μg/L rise in serum ferritin.
- The meta-analysis, after heterogeneity adjustment, showed a standardized mean difference (SMD) of 0.119 (95% CI=0.073-0.165) for serum ferritin and increased CAD risk.
- The concentration-risk meta-analysis revealed a 2.4% increase in CAD risk for every 50 μg/L increment in serum ferritin.
Conclusions:
- Serum ferritin is weakly positively associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD).
- The observed association suggests a potential role for serum ferritin as a risk indicator for CAD.
- Further studies are required to confirm these findings and elucidate the underlying mechanisms.
Background:
Published results regarding the association of serum ferritin with coronary artery disease (CAD) were conflicting, thus a case-control study and a meta-analysis were performed to assess the association between serum ferritin and CAD risk.
Methods:
A hospital-based case-control study was conducted with 258 CAD cases and 282 healthy controls. The restricted cubic spline (RCS) function with three knots was used to assess the concentration-risk association between serum ferritin and CAD risk. A meta-analysis was performed including 20 outcomes. Fixed or random effect pooled measure was selected on the basis of homogeneity test among studies.
Results:
In our case-control study, compared with serum ferritin concentrations less than 200 μg/L as the reference, the trend of CAD risk increased by 4.2% for every 50 μg/L increase in serum ferritin (OR=1.042, 95% CI=0.946-1.147). In the meta-analysis and after excluding articles that were the key contributors to between-study heterogeneity, the standardized mean difference (SMD) of serum ferritin was associated with increased CAD risk (FEM: SMD=0.119, 95% CI=0.073-0.165). And the concentration-risk meta-analysis suggested that, for every 50 μg/L increase of serum ferritin, the risk of CAD increases by 2.4% (OR=1.024, 95% CI=1.001-1.048).
Conclusion:
These findings indicate that serum ferritin is weakly positively associated with CAD risk. This risk needs to be confirmed by further studies.
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