Biomarkers of Chronic Inflammatory State in Uremia and Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the general population; traditional risk factors seem inadequate to explain completely the remarkable prevalence of cardiovascular mortality and morbidity observed in the uremic population. A role for chronic inflammation has been well established in the development of atherosclerotic disease, and, on the basis of these observations, atherosclerosis might be considered an inflammatory disease. Inflammation has been implicated in the etiology of coronary artery disease in the general population, and traditional inflammatory biomarkers such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) have been shown to predict cardiovascular events in both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals as well as those in the uremic population. Later on, new nontraditional markers were related to the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in general and in uremic population. As a consequence of the expanding research base and availability of assays, the number of inflammatory marker tests ordered by clinicians for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk prediction has grown rapidly and several commercial assays have become available. So, up to now we can consider that several new nontraditional markers as CD40-CD40 ligand system and pentraxin-3 seem to be significant features of cardiovascular disease in general and in ESRD population.