Impact of bariatric surgery on circulating PCSK9 levels as a marker of cardiovascular disease risk: a meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION: This systematic review and meta-analysis focuses on PCSK9 changes in obese patients following bariatric surgery. METHODS: A systematic literature search in four databases was performed. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) V2 software used to conduct the meta-analysis. Studies were evaluated regarding heterogeneity in design, populations under investigation, and treatment duration using a random-effects model and the generic inverse variance weighting approach. A random-effect meta-regression approach was used to investigate the association with the estimated effect size. RESULTS: The results of the meta-analysis on 4 trials including 260 individuals demonstrated a remarkable decline of PCSK9 after bariatric surgery (WMD = –57.34 ng/ml, 95% CI: –87.97, –26.71, p < 0.001; I(2) = 96.25%). Consistently, a significant decrease of LDL-C after bariatric surgery (WMD = –22.57 mg/dl, 95% CI: –27.5, –17.574, p < 0.001; I(2) = 86.35%) was observed. CONCLUSIONS: PCSK9 is reduced significantly after bariatric surgery. The decrease of PCSK9 might be utilized as an independent surrogate marker of improvement of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk after bariatric surgery.