Association of bone turnover markers with mortality in men referred to coronary angiography

We aimed to examine the association of fatal events with osteocalcin (OC) and beta-crosslaps (β-CTX) levels in men. We observed a U-shaped association of OC and β-CTX levels with fatal events in a large cohort of men at high cardiovascular risk.

Accumulating evidence suggests an association of low OC levels with metabolic disturbances. Whether OC levels are related to fatal events is, however, less clear. Further, high β-CTX levels are linked to increased mortality. We aimed to examine the association of fatal events with both OC and β-CTX in men.

We measured OC and β-CTX in 2,271 men referred to coronary angiography (1997-2000).

We observed a U-shaped association of OC and β-CTX with fatal events. Crude hazard ratios (HRs) for all-cause and non-cardiovascular mortality in the highest OC quintile were 1.38 (1.04-1.83) and 1.47 (0.89-2.40), respectively, and 2.11 (1.61-2.75) and 2.06 (1.29-3.29) for men in the lowest compared to the third OC quintile. In multivariate-adjusted models, HRs for all-cause, and non-cardiovascular mortality in the lowest OC quintile were 1.63 (1.23-2.16) and 1.79 (1.10-2.92), respectively, compared to the third OC quintile, whereas the association of high OC with mortality lost its significance. Crude and multivariate-adjusted HRs for cardiovascular mortality in the lowest OC quintile compared to the third OC quintile were 2.08 (1.49-2.90) and 1.74 (1.24-2.46), respectively. Moreover, high as well as low β-CTX levels were independently associated with all-cause (quintile 1 vs. quintile 3: HR 1.42 (1.05-1.92); quintile 5 vs. quintile 3: HR 1.79 (1.31-2.45)) and cardiovascular mortality (quintile 1 vs. quintile 3: HR 1.55 (1.05-2.28); quintile 5 vs. quintile 3: HR 1.85 (1.23-2.77)).

We observed a U-shaped association of OC and β-CTX with fatal events in a large cohort of men at high cardiovascular risk.