Plasma glycosylphosphatidylinositol phospholipase D (GPI-PLD) and abdominal aortic aneurysm

Recent reviews state that a circulating biomarker predicting aortic rupture risk would be a powerful tool to stratify patients with small screen-detected abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). In a current proteomic pilot-study elevated levels of the enzyme Glycosylphosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase D (GPI-PLD) was shown in patients with small AAA compared with controls without aneurysm. In the present study we investigated the impact of plasma GPI-PLD as a biomarker in patients with AAA in relation to aneurysm size, and rupture. Plasma GPI-PLD was measured in patients with AAA (nonruptured, n=78 and ruptured, n=55) and controls without aneurysm (n=41) matched by age, sex and smoking habit. The plasma GPI-PLD levels were significantly lower in patients with ruptured compared nonruptured AAA which we interpreted as a result of hemodilution due to hemorrhage in patients with ruptured AAA. The plasma GPI-PLD levels were similar in patients with nonruptured AAA compared to the controls without aneurysm. Furthermore, there was no correlation between plasma GPI-PLD and aneurysm size in the group of patients with nonruptured AAA. In conclusion, the present study fails to show a connection between GPI-PLD and AAA. However, the definite role of GPI-PLD as a predictive marker needs to be further clarified in a follow-up cohort study.