Atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction and primary hemostasis: Impact of platelets, von Willebrand factor and soluble glycoprotein VI

Introduction: Little is known about peril constellations in primary hemostasis contributing to an acute myocardial infarction (MI) in patients with already manifest atherosclerosis. The study aimed to establish a predicting model based on six biomarkers of primary hemostasis: platelet count, mean platelet volume, hematocrit, soluble glycoprotein VI, fibrinogen and von Willebrand factor ratio. Materials and methods: The biomarkers were measured in 1.491 patients with manifest atherosclerosis of the Leipzig (LIFE) heart study. Three groups were divided: patients with coronary artery disease (900 patients) and patients with atherosclerosis and either ST-elevated MI (404 patients) or Non-ST-elevated MI (187 patients). Correlations were analyzed by non-linear analysis with Self Organizing Maps. Classification and discriminant analysis was performed using Learning Vector Quantization. Results and conclusions. The combination of hemostatic biomarkers is regarded as valuable tool for identifying patients with atherosclerosis at risk for MI. Nevertheless, our study contradicts this belief. The biomarkers did not allow to establish a predicting model usable in daily patient care. Good specificity and sensitivity for the detection of MI was only reached in models including acute phase parameters (specificity 0,9036, sensitivity 0,7937 in men; 0,8977 and 0,8133 in women). In detail, hematocrit and soluble glycoprotein VI were significantly different between the groups. Significant dissimilarities were also found for fibrinogen (in men) and von Willebrand factor ratio. In contrast, the most promising parameters mean platelet volume and platelet count showed no difference, which is an important contribution to the controversy concerning them as new risk and therapy targets for MI.