NON-INVASIVE PREDICTORS OF CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE SEVERITY.

Background: -Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a worldwide health problem.Using non-invasiveevaluation of severity of CAD has many limitations and remains a challenging issue in current cardiology practice.Recently, carotid intimal medial thickness (CIMT), plasma leptin level and two-dimensional strain speckle tracking echocardiography have got importance in this regard. Aim: -Investigatingwhether carotid intimal medial thickness, two-dimensional strain speckle tracking echocardiographyand plasma leptin level could be used as predictors of CAD severity denoted by Gensini score. Methods:- one hundred -forty one(141) coronary artery patients underwent coronary angiography and echocardiography in our hospital after two weeks of acute attack, are examined for carotid intima media thickness (CIMT) testing via B-mode ultrasound, plasma leptin levelsmeasured by ELISA and strain imaging derived from 2D speckle tracking analysis. They are assessed according to Gensini score as mild (? 20 n = 105) or sever (?20 n = 36). All patients have normal ejection fraction. Results: -CIMTand leptin levelswere significantly higherin severe compared to mild CAD patients, and were positively correlated with the severity of CAD.GLS was significantly lowerin sever CAD patients and inversely correlatedwith the severity of CAD. CIMT,leptin levels and GLS weregood predictors of severity of CAD assessed by coronary angiography and scored by Gensini score with cut off points (>0.97mm,>13 ng/mLand ? -17), sensitivity and specificity (91.7, 94.4, 77.8- 90.5, 93.3, 79) respectively. Conclusion: -CIMT, leptin levelsand GLS could be useful non-invasive predictors of the severity of CAD.