Anticipation of High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein Effect on Post Myocardial Infarction Depression Disorder

Background: The natural history of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) as the most prev-alent public health issue in Iran has changed with the introduction of novel therapeutic strategies that have reduced its mortality significantly. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent and disabling psychiatric disorder and frequently co-exist with AMI. There are proposed pathophysiological links between the two diseases among which inflam-mation is the most important. With more patients surviving a myocardial infarction (MI) event, post-MI depression has become an important determinant of disability and mor-tality. Materials and Methods: In this study we defined a 1-month post-MI depressive scale of 200 patients using Beck’s inventory questionnaire II and measured serum high Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hs-CRP) and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) to look for the association between inflammatory state and atherosclerosis in different de-pression score categories. Results: Minimum and maximum Beck scores were 1 and 43, respectively with a mean of 13±8. The mean CIMT was 0.77±0.26 mm. Serum hs-CRP level was measured with a mean of 1.51±1.6 mg/L. According to BDI-II scores, 44.2% of patients 1-month post-MI suffered from more than mild depression. Being affected was not correlated with either the level of hs-CRP or CIMT. Nearly 44 percent of patients suffered more than mild depression. There was a negative association between serum hs-CRP level and CIMT as a measure of atherosclerosis in groups of depressed versus non-depressed patients. This may indicate that the extent of atherosclerosis is not cor-related with the inflammatory state after MI in depressed versus non-depressed patients. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that the extent of atherosclerosis is not correlated with the inflammatory state after MI in depressed versus non-depressed pa-tients. Nonetheless, the prognostic indications of increased hs-CRP and depression after AMI remains to be investigated further.