Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 14, 2026
Author Spotlight: Self-Assessment Protocol for Predicting Psoriatic Arthritis in Psoriasis Patients
Published on: March 1, 2024
GlycA Is a Novel Biomarker of Inflammation and Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease in Psoriasis
Aditya A Joshi1, Joseph B Lerman1, Tsion M Aberra1
1From the Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Branch (A.A.J., J.B.L., T.M.A., H.L.T., J.A.R., Q.N., T.Z.A., T.S., B.N., M.Y.C., A.T.R., D.A.B., M.P.P., N.N.M.), Section of Inflammation and Cardiometabolic Diseases (A.A.J., J.B.L., T.M.A., H.L.T., J.A.R., Q.N., T.Z.A., T.S., B.N., A.T.R., M.P.P., N.N.M.), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, MD; Department of Internal Medicine, Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA (A.A.J.); Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada (M.A.); Department of Cardiology, Einstein Institute for Heart and Vascular Health, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA (P.K.); Department of Internal Medicine, University of Colorado, Denver (T.S.); Department of Internal Medicine, University of Arizona College of Medicine at South Campus, Tucson (B.N.); Derm Associates, Silver Spring, MD (B.N.L.); Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, National Institutes of Health Clinical Research Center, Bethesda, MD (M.A.A.); Perelman School of Medicine (D.J.R.), Department of Dermatology (J.M.G.), and The Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (J.M.G.), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Columbia University, New York (M.P.R.).
Rationale:
GlycA, an emerging inflammatory biomarker, predicted cardiovascular events in population-based studies. Psoriasis, an inflammatory disease associated with increased cardiovascular risk, provides a model to study inflammatory biomarkers in cardiovascular disease (CVD). Whether GlycA associates with psoriasis and how it predicts subclinical CVD beyond high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in psoriasis is unknown.
Objective:
To investigate the relationships between GlycA and psoriasis and between GlycA and subclinical CVD.
Methods And Results:
Patients with psoriasis and controls (n=412) participated in a 2-stage study. We measured GlycA by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. National Institutes of Health (NIH) participants underwent 18-F Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography (18-FDG PET/CT) scans to assess vascular inflammation (VI) and coronary computed tomographic angiography to quantify coronary artery disease burden. Psoriasis cohorts were young (mean age=47.9), with low cardiovascular risk and moderate skin disease. high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and GlycA were increased in psoriasis compared with controls (GlycA: [PENN: 408.8±75.4 versus 289.4±60.2, P<0.0001; NIH: 415.8±63.2 versus 346.2±46, P<0.0001]) and demonstrated a dose-response with psoriasis severity. In stage 2, VI (β=0.36, P<0.001) and coronary artery disease (β=0.29, P=0.004) associated with GlycA beyond CV risk factors in psoriasis. In receiver operating characteristic analysis, GlycA added value in predicting VI (P=0.01) and coronary artery disease (P<0.01). Finally, initiating anti-tumor necrosis factor therapy (n=16) reduced psoriasis severity (P<0.001), GlycA (463.7±92.5 versus 370.1±78.5, P<0.001) and VI (1.93±0.36 versus 1.76±0.19, P<0.001), whereas GlycA remained associated with VI (β=0.56, P<0.001) post treatment.
Conclusions:
GlycA associated with psoriasis severity and subclinical CVD beyond traditional CV risk and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. Moreover, psoriasis treatment reduced GlycA and VI. These findings support the potential use of GlycA in subclinical CVD risk assessment in psoriasis and potentially other inflammatory diseases.
More Related Videos
06:35An Immunohistopathologic Study to Profile the Folate Receptor Beta Macrophage and Vascular Immune Microenvironment in Giant Cell Arteritis
Published on: February 8, 2019
10:03Coronary Progenitor Cells and Soluble Biomarkers in Cardiovascular Prognosis after Coronary Angioplasty
Published on: January 28, 2020
Related Concept Videos
01:19Blood Studies for Cardiovascular System II: CRP, Hcy, and Cardiac Natriuretic Peptide Markers
These markers indicate stress or strain on the heart muscle:
Natriuretic Peptides (BNP)
Cardiac myocytes produce these hormones in response to ventricular stretching...
01:38Inflammation
01:30Coronary Artery Disease I: Introduction
01:26Atherosclerosis III: Management