Biomarker Utility for Peripheral Artery Disease Diagnosis in Real Clinical Practice: A Prospective Study

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a common manifestation of generalized atherosclerosis, which affects more than 200 million patients worldwide. Currently, there is no ideal biomarker for PAD risk stratification and diagnosis. The goal of this research was to investigate the levels of inflammation biomarkers and cystatin C and to explore their utility for the diagnosis of PAD. The study included 296 participants, distributed in two groups: 216 patients diagnosed with PAD and 80 patients without PAD as controls. All studied biomarker levels (C-reactive protein, CRP; fibrinogen; erythrocyte sedimentation rate, ESR; neopterin; beta 2-microglobulin, B2-MG; and cystatin C) were significantly higher in the PAD group and indirectly correlated with the ankle–brachial index (ABI). The final logistic regression model included an association of neopterin, fibrinogen, and cystatin C as the most efficient markers for the prediction of PAD diagnosis. When comparing the area under the curve (AUC) for all biomarkers, the value for neopterin was significantly higher than those of all the other analyzed biomarkers. In agreement with previous studies, this research shows that markers such as fibrinogen, CRP, ESR, B2-MG, and cystatin C have significant value for the diagnosis of PAD, and also clearly underlines the accuracy of neopterin as a leading biomarker in PAD prediction.