Lysophosphatidic Acid May Be a Novel Biomarker for Early Acute Aortic Dissection

Background: Misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis of acute aortic dissection (AAD) significantly increase mortality. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a biomarker related to coagulation cascade and cardiovascular-injury. The extent of LPA elevation in AAD and whether it can discriminate sudden-onset of acute chest pain are currently unclear. Methods: We measured the plasma concentration of LPA in a cohort of 174 patients with suspected AAD chest pain and 30 healthy participants. Measures to discriminate AAD from other acute-onset thoracalgia were compared and calculated. Results: LPA was significantly higher in AAD than in the AMI, PE, and the healthy (344.69 ± 59.99 vs. 286.79 ± 43.01 vs. 286.61 ± 43.32 vs. 96.08 ± 11.93, P < 0.01) within 48 h of symptom onset. LPA level peaked at 12 h after symptom onset, then gradually decreased from 12 to 48 h in AAD. LPA had an AUC of 0.85 (0.80–0.90), diagnosis threshold of 298.98 mg/dl, a sensitivity of 0.81, specificity of 0.77, and the negative predictive value of 0.85. The ROC curve of LPA is better than D-dimer (P = 0.041, Delong test). The decision curve showed that LPA had excellent standardized net benefits. Conclusion: LPA showed superior overall diagnostic performance to D-dimer in early AAD diagnosis may be a potential biomarker, but additional studies are needed to determine the rapid and cost-effective diagnostic tests in the emergency department.