2.4.3 Oxidized LDL predicts future cardiovascular events

In 2005, Meisinger and colleagues at the Institute of Epidemiology, Neuherberg, Germany studied apparently healthy men from the MONICA/KORA study. Compared to controls, baseline mean plasma levels of oxLDL were significantly higher in subjects who subsequently experienced a CHD event. Elevated plasma levels of oxLDL were the strongest predictor of future CHD events, and this association was independent of the conventional lipoprotein profile and other traditional risk factors for CHD such as CRP. Thus the additional measurement of oxLDL may improve prediction of atherosclerotic CHD complications.

In 2006, Johnston and coworkers examined the relationship between levels of circulating oxLDL and outcomes in patients with unstable CAD at long term follow-up, and compared the prognostic value of oxLDL at 2 year follow-up with that of other well established cardiovascular risk markers in patients with unstable CAD included in the FRISC-II trial. Oxidized LDL proved to be an independent predictor of MI, but not mortality and their findings suggest that oxLDL might identify unstable CAD patients at risk for future MI, particularly in the absence of myocardial necrosis.

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