Prospective Assessment of Biomarkers of Hypercoagulability for the Identification of Patients With Severe Coronary Artery Disease. The ROADMAP-CAD Study

In patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) blood hypercoagulability figures among factors leading to thrombosis. Tissue factor (TF) exposure at ruptured plaque initiates blood coagulation and hypercoagulability is responsible for thrombus formation. Early identification of patients eligible for angiography is a challenging issue for effective prevention of ACS. This pilot study aimed to identify biomarkers of hypercoagulability that can be prospectively used in risk assessment tools for the evaluation of CAD severity. Biomarkers of hypercoagulability could be a used for the evaluation of CAD severity. Platelet-poor plasma from 66 patients who were referred to coronary angiography was assessed for thrombin generation, phospholipid-dependent clotting time (Procoag-PPL (®) ) and D-Dimers, and evaluated against atherosclerotic burden. Patients with CAD, as compared to controls, showed attenuated thrombin generation lag time: 4.7 (3.8-5.4) min versus 2.5 (2.1-2.9) min; p < 0.0001, shorter Procoag-PPL(®) clotting time 55.0(32-66) s versus 62.8 (42-85) s; p = 0.001), and higher D-Dimer levels 0.509 (0.27-2.58) μg/ml versus 0.309 (0.23-0.39) μg/ml; p = 0.038. Multivariate logistic regression model showed excellent discriminatory value in predicting CAD severity. The ROADMAP-CAD study showed that the Procoag-PPL(®) clotting time and thrombin Peak are informative for the the burden of the coronary atherosclerotic disease. The clinical relevance of this observation in the development of a new clinic-biological risk assessment model for early diagnosis of severe CAD has to be examined in a prospective study.