PROHLÍŽENÍ ABSTRAKTA

Background: Still, there are no suitable markers for extracorporeal elimination of LDL-cholesterol in familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) which would reliably determine the therapy intensity immediately after the procedure and would be able to show activity of atherosclerosis.
Methods: An ideal tool for immediate evaluation would be a serum marker, levels of which would correlate with disease activity and reflect an improvement after elimination therapy. In a previous study, we found that the levels of P-selectin, MCP-1, hsCRP and CD40L were reduced after LDL apheresis. Although the post-elimination decreases in all four markers reached statistical significance, we speculated that endoglin levels could represent an even more effective tool for evaluation of treatment efficacy.
  Alltogether 40 examinations of endoglin level in 11 patients with severe FH and long-term treatment (4.5±2.8 years) by extracorporeal elimination (LDL-apheresis and haemorheopheresis) were done. We measured sCD105 levels immediately before and after two consecutive elimination procedures.
Results: Baseline serum sCD105 levels were significantly higher in the patients than in the control group. The decrease in sCD105 after both LDL-elimination series was also statistically significant. Endoglin level normalized after procedures in all of 40 except one measurements.
Conclusion: We conclude that soluble endoglin levels are increased in patients with severe familial hyperlipidemia and decrease after extracorporeal elimination what is the first observation. Endoglin can therefore serve as a useful marker for evaluation of the treatment efficacy and decreased atherosclerosis activity in patients with familial hyperlipoproteinemia treated by extracorporeal LDL-cholesterol elimination.
Supported by the research task MH CZ MZO 00179906.