Relation between coronary atherosclerotic plaque burden and cardiac enzyme elevation following percutaneous coronary intervention

Several studies have reported that elevation of cardiac creatine kinase (CK) enzymes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is associated with an increase in cardiac morbidity and mortality during follow-up. However, it remains unclear if enzyme elevation contributes to the adverse outcomes or is simply a marker for adverse events. We conducted a case-control study to determine if angiographically determined atherosclerotic plaque burden correlated with CK elevation. Patients (cases, n = 23) with CK elevation after PCI were identified along with 46 age- and gender-matched controls without CK elevation. Detailed angiographic analysis quantified the percentage of coronary artery length with any luminal irregularity, a surrogate for plaque burden. The CK elevation group was characterized by a greater number of smokers (65% vs 33%, p = 0.02), more thrombus-containing lesions (22% vs 2.2%, p = 0.014), and more frequent abrupt closure (13% vs 0%, p = 0.03). In addition, the case group had a 50% increase in atherosclerotic plaque burden compared with controls (30 ± 14% vs 20 ± 14%, p = 0.006). These data suggest that CK elevation after PCI is a marker for more extensive atherosclerosis, which may explain the worse prognosis of these patients.