AUTHOR=Cremonini Anna Laura , Pasta Andrea , Carbone Federico , Visconti Luca , Casula Matteo , Elia Edoardo , Bonaventura Aldo , Liberale Luca , Bertolotto Maria , Artom Nathan , Minetti Silvia , Contini Paola , Verzola Daniela , Pontremoli Roberto , Viazzi Francesca , Viviani Giorgio Luciano , Bertolini Stefano , Pende Aldo , Montecucco Fabrizio , Pisciotta Livia 

TITLE=Lipoprotein(a) Modulates Carotid Atherosclerosis in Metabolic Syndrome

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences

VOLUME=9

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/molecular-biosciences/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2022.854624

DOI=10.3389/fmolb.2022.854624

ISSN=2296-889X

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background and Aim:</bold> High lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] is a well-established cardiovascular (CV) risk factor, but the effect of mildly elevated Lp(a) on CV health is largely unknown. Our aim was to evaluate if Lp(a) is associated with the severity of carotid atherosclerosis (CA) in the specific subset of metabolic syndrome (MetS).</p><p><bold>Patients and Methods:</bold> Subjects with diagnosed MetS and ultrasound-assessed CA were enrolled. Those patients were categorized according to the severity of CA (moderate vs. severe), and the circulating levels of Lp(a) alongside with clinical, anthropometric, and biochemical data were collected.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Sixty-five patients were finally included: twenty-five with moderate and forty with severe CA (all with asymptomatic disease). Intergroup comparison showed Lp(a) as the only significantly different variable [6 (2–12) mg/dl vs. 11.5 (6–29.5) mg/dl; <italic>p</italic> = 0.018]. Circulating levels of Lp(a) were also confirmed as the only variable independently associated with severity of CA at logistic regression analysis [OR 2.9 (95% CI 1.1–7.8); <italic>p</italic> = 0.040]. ROC curve analysis for Lp(a) confirmed a serum level of 10 mg/dl as the best cut-off value [AUC 0.675 (95% CI 0.548–0.786)]. Although sensitivity and specificity were suboptimal (69.0 and 70.4%, respectively)—likely due to the small sample size—this result is in line with those previously reported in the literature.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> Lp(a) is independently associated with severity of CA in the subgroup of MetS patients.</p>