Association of alkaline phosphatase with isolated coronary artery ectasia

Background. It has been shown that alkaline phosphatase (ALP) is a reliable marker for cardiovascular events and mortality. However, there is no data available regarding the association of ALP with isolated coronary artery ectasia (CAE). The aim of the present study was to assess the serum ALP activity in isolated CAE. Methods. Seventy-nine patients with isolated CAE (59 males; mean age, 52 +/- 12 years) and 88 age-and gender-matched normal subjects (73 males; mean age, 52 +/- 7 years) were enrolled. Baseline characteristics were recorded in both groups and serum ALP activity were compared between the two groups. Results. Patients with angiography-proved isolated CAE had significantly higher serum ALP activity compared with angiographic normal controls (72.41 +/- 29.97 vs. 59.27 +/- 14.46, p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, increased ALP (OR = 1.037, 95% CI 1.017-1.057, p < 0.001) were independent predictors for the presence of isolated CAE. A cut-off of >= 66.5 U/L of ALP activity measured on admission had a 60.8% sensitivity and 75.0% specificity in predicting isolated CAE by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Conclusion. Our data firstly demonstrated that serum ALP activity, a readily available clinical laboratory value, was associated with the presence of isolated CAE.