Elevated serum visfatin levels in patients with acute myocardial infarction

Visfatin, a novel adiopocytokine, has been proven to be a proinflammatory mediator involved in the process of atherosclerosis. Visfatin has been shown to play a role in plaque destabilization as it is found abundantly in foam cell macrophages within unstable atherosclerotic plaques. The present study is designed to investigate the potential association between serum vistafin levels and the risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

There were 72 patients (mean age: 61.57 ± 11.40 years) as cases who presented with first-time AMI that were assessed 8 hours after the incident. The control group consisted of 83 healthy volunteers (mean age: 60.30 ± 8.32 years). Plasma visfatin levels were measured using enzyme immunoassay in both groups. Biochemical parameters were analyzed. Blood pressure, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, diabetes, and hypertension were recorded.

Serum visfatin levels were significantly higher in patients with AMI (12.77 ± 8.06 ng/ml) compared to controls (6.57 ± 2.96 ng/ml, P ≤ 0.001). We found that a visfatin level > 7.244 ng/ml (log visfatin > 0.86) had a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 75% for predicting AMI.

We have detected high levels of visfatin in patients with AMI. It can be concluded that proinflammatory cytokines such as visfatin may play a role in the development of atherosclerosis as well as destabilization of the atherosclerotic plaque.