The association between serum Beta-2 microglobulin and cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women

Despite evidence indicating that postmenopausal women are at a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) than premenopausal women and men, research on monitoring and preventing CVD in this demographic remains incomplete.

Using publicly available 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data, serum beta-2-microglobulin (β-2 M) was initially assessed by stratifying it into quartiles. We examined the relationship of β-2 M and other common cardiovascular predictors to CVD using ROC curves. A stratified approach was employed for multifactor weighted logistic regression analyses, followed by sensitivity analyses using propensity score matching and multiple imputation.

In postmenopausal women, β-2 M was positively and statistically significantly associated with cardiovascular disease (p < 0.05). ROC curves showed that the area under the curve (AUC) for β-2 M was higher than that of other common predictors of cardiovascular disease(p < 0.05). Although second only to N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), there was no significant difference in the predictive efficacy of these two markers (p > 0.05). Subgroup analyses revealed that β-2 M was significantly correlated with an increasing risk of CVD in postmenopausal women with higher education (more than high school), poverty income ratio (PIR) of 1.30-3.50, BMI ≥30.0, and hypertension (p < 0.05). After further adjustment of model 2, sensitivity analyses yielded consistent results, maintaining statistical significance (p < 0.05).

In postmenopausal women, β-2 M is strongly associated with CVD, even within specific subgroups. Additionally, β-2 M is a potent indicator of CVD. Further prospective studies are needed to validate these findings in the future.