Calprotectin and cardiovascular events. A narrative review

Calprotectin, also known as S100A8/A9 complex, is currently considered as a valid biomarker for diagnosis, follow-up and therapeutic monitoring of inflammatory bowel diseases. The attractive evidence that this protein may be actively produced and released by leukocytes (especially neutrophils) and by nonmyeloid cardiovascular cell types has paved the way to a series of studies that have assessed its biology in the setting of cardiovascular disease. The aim of this review was thus to investigate the diagnostic and prognostic utility of this biomarker in cardiovascular disease and in particular in myocardial infarction.

We performed a systematic, electronic search on Medline, Scosus and Web of Science, using the keywords "calprotectin" or "S100A8/A9" or "MRP-8/14" and "myocardial infarction" or "acute coronary syndrome" or "cardiovascular disease", from inception to June 2013. The bibliographic references of articles published in English, French and Italian were reviewed for additional relevant studies.

The data of the current scientific literature seems to confirm that calprotectin is actively secreted in the setting of cardiac ischemia and its concentration is significantly associated with the prognosis. Nevertheless, the evidence provided by recent articles that have assessed its performance for diagnosing acute myocardial infarction, either alone or in combination with troponin, supports the hypothesis that this biomarker may be of limited value for enabling a better or faster diagnosis of cardiac ischemia. Even its putative role as an independent prognostic biomarker of cardiovascular morbidity and death is still largely uncertain.

It can hence be concluded that calprotectin does not currently meet the requirements for efficient diagnosis and prognostication of patients with cardiovascular disease.