Predictive value of elevated neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) levels for assessment of in hospital adverse outcomes among myocardial infarction patients

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Background Inflammatory biomarkers are known to rise and have significant predictive value for adverse outcomes in patients with acute coronary ischemia .Neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), a glycoprotein stored in mature neutrophil granules, is significantly increased in patients with myocardial infarction compared with patients with stable coronary artery disease and healthy subjects. To date, very few studies have assessed the prognostic value of NGAL in this setting. Purpose We investigated the prognostic utility of elevated NGAL levels on clinical outcomes among ST elevation myocardial infarction patients (STEMI) treated with primary coronary intervention (PCI). Methods Blood samples for plasma NGAL were drawn immediately after admission. High NGAL was defined as values within the 4th quartile (>75percentile). Patients were assessed for major in-hospital adverse clinical events (MACE). These included reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, clinical heart failure findings and 30-day mortality. Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between NGAL group and MACE. Receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the discrimination ability of NGAL compared with other inflammatory biomarkers including white blood cell count(WBC), peak troponin level, peak C-reactive protein(CRP) and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio(NLR) for the prediction of MACE. Results A total of 273 patients were included (mean age 66 ± 14 years, 81% males). Patients with high NGAL were at increased risk for MACE (62% vs. 19%; OR 6.88, 95%CI 3.77-12.54, p<0.001, Figure 1). After propensity score matching, 55 pairs of comparable patients were identified. Following matching, the incidence of MACE was significantly higher in patients with high vs. low NGAL levels (69% vs. 6%, p=0.002; figure 1). In the multivariable logistic regression high NGAL level was independently associated with MACE (OR 9.25, 95%CI 4.33-19.76, P<0.001). The discrimination ability of NGAL to identify MACE (AUC 0.823) was significantly better (figure 2; p<0.001) than that of CRP (AUC 0.627), troponin (AUC 0.588), WBC (AUC 0.583) and NLR (AUC 0.601). Conclusions Among STEMI patients undergoing primary PCI, high NGAL levels are associated with adverse outcomes, independent of traditional inflammatory markers.