Elevated carbohydrate antigen 125 levels in patients with aortic stenosis: relation to clinical severity and echocardiographic parameters

OBJECTIVES
Carbohydrate antigen 125 (CA 125), known as a tumor marker for ovarian cancer, has been reported to increase in relation to disease severity in heart failure patients with systolic dysfunction. Aortic stenosis (AS) has a wide clinical spectrum that often includes heart failure symptoms. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the serum levels of CA 125 in patients with AS and its relation to clinical severity and echocardiographic parameters.

STUDY DESIGN
The study group consisted of 42 patients (20 males, 22 females, mean age 62.5±14.9 years) with AS and 35 healthy controls (17 men, 18 women; mean age 59.0±9.1 years). All patients and control subjects underwent chest X-ray and echocardiographic evaluation. We measured serum CA 125 values in patients with AS and control subjects.

RESULTS
The median (interquartile range) CA 125 level was significantly higher among AS patients than in the control group in covariate analysis (9.4 [2.5-38.1] vs. 6.8 [4.4-13.9] U/ml respectively; p=0.001). Spearman correlation analysis in the whole group indicated that CA 125 was positively correlated with aortic mean gradient (p=0.007, r=0.30) and creatinine levels (p=0.02, r=0.26).

CONCLUSION
We found that CA 125 levels were elevated in patients with AS and were correlated with mean gradient and creatinine levels.