Research Article: Serum endocan levels in patients with peripheral artery disease: an exploratory cross-sectional study
Abstract:
To explore whether circulating endocan concentrations differ between adults with imaging-confirmed peripheral artery disease (PAD) and controls without clinically evident PAD, and to generate hypotheses regarding the relationship between endocan and PAD-associated endothelial and inflammatory activity.
In this single-centre exploratory cross-sectional study, 56 patients with imaging-confirmed PAD were compared with 54 cardiovascular risk-enriched controls without clinically evident PAD based on pulse examination and handheld Doppler assessment. Serum endocan was measured by ELISA, and exploratory between-group and multivariable analyses were performed.
The distributions of major cardiovascular comorbidities were statistically comparable between groups; however, the comparator group itself had a substantial cardiovascular-risk burden, including coronary artery disease in 74.1%, diabetes mellitus in 46.3%, hypertension in 59.3%, hyperlipidemia in 83.3%, and smoking in 44.4%. Mean serum endocan concentrations were numerically higher in the PAD group than in the comparator group (218.8?±?166.9 vs. 170.5?±?90.0?pg/mL), but the between-group difference did not reach statistical significance ( p =?0.063). PAD status was not independently associated with serum endocan following multivariable adjustment.
In this exploratory cohort, serum endocan concentrations were numerically higher in patients with PAD, but the between-group difference was not statistically significant and no independent association with PAD was demonstrated after adjustment. Interpretation is materially limited by the cardiovascular risk-enriched comparator population, in whom generalized endothelial activation and possible subclinical PAD may have reduced between-group separation. These findings do not validate endocan as a PAD-specific diagnostic biomarker and cannot be extrapolated to comparisons with low-risk healthy populations. Rather, they generate hypotheses for future studies using uniformly phenotyped healthy and risk-matched comparator groups.
Introduction:
Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a common manifestation of systemic atherosclerosis and is associated with substantial cardiovascular morbidity and mortality ( 1 ). Although established clinical and vascular diagnostic methods remain central to PAD assessment, circulating biomarkers remain of research interest because they may provide insight into endothelial and inflammatory pathways and may identify candidates for subsequent, formally designed diagnostic or prognostic studies ( 2 ). Endothelial cell-specific…
Read more