Objective: In patients with psoriatic disease (PsD), we determined whether cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were associated with carotid plaque burden and the development of cardiovascular events independent of the Framingham Risk Score (FRS).
Methods: Among 1,000 patients with PsD, carotid total plaque area (TPA) was measured in 358 participants at baseline. Cardiac troponin I and NT-proBNP were measured using automated clinical assays. The association between cardiac biomarkers and carotid atherosclerosis was assessed by multivariable regression after adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors. Improvement in the prediction of cardiovascular events beyond the FRS was tested using measures of risk discrimination and reclassification.
Results: In univariate analyses, cTnI (β coefficient 0.52 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.3, 0.74], P < 0.001) and NT-proBNP (β coefficient 0.24 [95% CI 0.1, 0.39], P < 0.001) were associated with TPA. After adjusting for cardiovascular risk factors, the association remained statistically significant for cTnI (adjusted β coefficient 0.21 [95% CI 0, 0.41], P = 0.047) but not for NT-proBNP (P = 0.21). Among the 1,000 patients with PsD assessed for cardiovascular risk prediction, 64 patients had incident cardiovascular events. When comparing a base model (with the FRS alone) to expanded models (with the FRS plus cardiac biomarkers), there was no improvement in predictive performance.
Conclusion: In patients with PsD, cTnI may reflect the burden of atherosclerosis, independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Cardiac troponin I and NT-proBNP are associated with incident cardiovascular events independent of the FRS, but further study of their role in cardiovascular risk stratification is warranted.
© 2022 The Authors. Arthritis & Rheumatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American College of Rheumatology.