Serum Carcinoembryonic Antigen Level Is Associated with Aortic Stiffness

OBJECTIVE
Carcinoembryonic antigen is a serological marker used in the diagnosis of malignancies and is also associated with inflammatory events. It has also been reported that carcinoembryonic antigen is associated with cardiovascular diseases. However, not much is known about the relationship between arterial stiffness and carcinoembryonic antigen. In this study, we investigated the relationship between serum carcinoembryonic antigen levels and arterial stiffness.


METHODS
The data of 371 (female = 192, male = 179) individuals who applied for cardiac check-up without obvious cardiovascular diseases were analyzed cross-sectionally. Echocardiography was used to assess the participants’ aortic stiffness index.


RESULTS
In our sample, aortic stiffness index and carcinoembryonic antigen were determined as median = 8.98, interquartile range 7.60 and median = 1.58 ng/mL, interquartile range 1.52, respectively. Aortic stiffness index and carcinoembryonic antigen levels were significantly higher in males than females. A significant correlation was observed between carcinoembryonic antigen and aortic stiffness index in the whole sample (r = 0.550, P < 0.001) and separately in females (r = 0.480, P < 0.001) and males (r = 0.602, P < 0.001). In multivariate stepwise regression analysis, female gender (r = -0.081, P < 0.001), age (r = 0.006, P < 0.001), BMI (r = 0.007, P = 0.002), and carcinoembryonic antigen (r = 0.375, P < 0.001) were determined as the strongest independent variables associated with aortic stiffness. When the model was adapted separately for females and males, age and carcinoembryonic antigen were determined as independent variables for aortic stiffness in both genders.


CONCLUSION
Carcinoembryonic antigen level is associated with aortic stiffness in healthy individuals. However, the clinical significance of this relationship is unknown.