The relationship between oxidative stress and coronary artery ectasia.

BACKGROUND Whereas coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is a rare abnormality of the coronary arteries, co-existent coronary artery disease (CAD) is commonly seen in CAE patients. Since a causative relationship has been shown to exist between oxidative stress and CAD, we sought to determine whether any relationship exists between oxidative stress and CAE. METHODS Fourty four patients with CAE (without CAD) and 86 controls (without any coronary disease) were recruited from among 1,520 patients undergoing coronary angiography. CAE subgroups were determined in accordance with the Markis classification system. Mean values for serum total oxidant status (TOS), total antioxidant status (TAS) and the oxidative stress index (OSI) were statistically compared between these two study groups and among CAE subgroups, with p = 0.05 set as the threshold for statistical significance. RESULTS TOS and OSI were significantly increased (p = 0.018 and 0.0002) and TAS decreased (p = 0.031) in the CAE versus control group. TOS and TAS were independently related to CAE (p = 0.037 and 0.039), with an r(2) of 0.127. Interestingly, however, among CAE subgroups, no differences were observed. CONCLUSIONS Oxidative stress might be implicated in the pathogenesis of CAE. Clinically-defined CAE subgroups did not differ in terms of oxidative stress status. However, the clinical implications of these findings are unclear and warrant further investigation.