Levels in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

Patrick Fitzsimmons, Mark E. Lawrence, Reza Forough, Brian Weylie, D. Scott Gantt, Gregory J. Dehmer, Scott & White Clinic, Temple, TX, Texas AM angiography was not performedin HV. We set the upper limit of normal as the mean + 2 standard deviations.Results: The upper limits of normal were: UMMP9 = 0.14 ng/ug protein, UMMP2 = 0.24ng/ug protein, PMMP9 = 712 ng/ml, PMMP2 = 355 ng/ml. The percent with elevated val-ues is shown in the table. The percent of pts with elevated U or P MMP2 was higher(p<0.01) in the ACS and CAD groups. There was a similar trend (p<0.07) in MMP9 levels,but no difference in the percent of pts with elevated MMP9 or MMP 2 levels betweenthose with CAD and ACS.Conclusion: The percent of pts with elevated U and P MMP2 levels was higher in thosewith CAD compared to healthy volunteers, and a similar trend existed for MMP9. How-ever, the percent of pts with elevated MMP9 and MMP2 in P or U was not different inthose with ACS compared with stable CAD. These data suggests that MMP levels maybe a ubiquitous marker of atherosclerosis with U levels appearing to identify more ptsthan a blood sample. However, because elevated MMPs may be due to atherosclerosisat any location, their usefulness for identifying ACS may be limited.