Elevated Lp-PLA2 Levels Add Prognostic Information to The Metabolic Syndrome on Incidence of Cardiovascular Events Among Middle-Aged Nondiabetic Subjects.

Background-To explore potential interrelationships between lipoprotein-associated phosholipase A2 (Lp-PLA(2)), the metabolic syndrome (MetS), and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methods and Results-MetS was defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult treatment Panel III criteria in 4480 nondiabetic Malmo Diet and Cancer Study subjects without history of CVD. Incidence of first CVD event (stroke [130 cases] or myocardial infarction [131]) was monitored over 10 years of follow-up. Lp-PLA(2) activity and mass were significantly higher in subjects with MetS. Lp-PLA(2) activity compared with Lp-PLA(2) mass was more strongly correlated to individual components and increased more linearly with number of MetS components. Elevated Lp-PLA(2) activity (top compared with bottom tertile), but not elevated Lp-PLA(2) mass, increased risk for incident CVD (relative risk, RR: 1.54, 95% CI 1.07 to 2.24), as did MetS (1.42, 1.06 to 1.90) after taking possible confounders into account. Relative to those without either elevated Lp-PLA(2) activity or MetS, combination of MetS and elevated Lp-PLA(2) activity increased risk for CVD (1.97, 1.34 to 2.90). Elevated Lp-PLA(2) activity without MetS increased risk for CVD (1.40, 1.03 to 1.92) but not MetS without elevated Lp-PLA(2) activity (1.46, 0.94 to 2.27). Conclusion-Lp-PLA(2) is associated to the MetS. Higher plasma levels of Lp-PLA(2) increased risk for incident CVD regardless of MetS. The simultaneous presence of elevated Lp-PLA(2) activity and MetS may identify an especially high risk individual.