Summary
Atherosclerosis is the most common pathophysiologic substrate of coronary artery disease
(CAD).Whereas plaque progression and arterial remodeling are critical components in
chronic CAD, intracoronary thrombosis over plaque disruption is causally related to
acute CAD. It was the objective of this study to investigate the differences between
prior acute CAD and chronic CAD by a simple global coagulation assay measuring thrombin
generation. A cross-sectional study involving 15 healthy controls, 35 patients with
chronic stable CAD, and 60 patients after an episode of acute myocardial infarction
(AMI) was performed. Thrombin generation was measured between three and 11 months
after the initial diagnosis (mean 6 months) by a commercially available fluorogenic
assay (Technothrombin TGA). In each patient the lag phase, velocity index and peak
thrombin were obtained from the thrombogram profile. Traditional cardiovascular risk
factors were recorded, and the inflammatory markers, fibrinogen and hs-C-reactive
protein were determined. Compared with stable CAD patients, showing normal thrombograms,
those with previous AMI showed earlier lag phase (p<0.05) and significant increase
of both the velocity index (p<0.001) and peak thrombin (p<0.05), indicating faster
and higher thrombin generation in the AMI group. Differences in thrombin generation
between stable and acute CAD patients remained significant (p<0.001) after adjusting
for conventional CAD risk factors (age, gender, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, and
hypercholesterolemia). In conclusion, patients with a previous history of acute CAD
showed earlier, faster and higher thrombin generation than stable chronic CAD patients.
The thrombin generation test may be of clinical value to monitor hypercoagulable/
vulnerable blood and/or guide therapy in CAD.
Keywords
Thrombin - acute myocardial infarction - coronary syndrome