Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm

Abstract Introduction In the present study we investigated the impact of soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) as a biomarker in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in relation to conventional inflammatory markers, aneurysm size, and rupture. Methods suPAR and conventional inflammatory markers were measured in 119 patients with AAA and 36 controls without aneurysm matched by age, gender and smoking habit. Results The results support earlier studies suggesting a state of activated inflammatory response in patients with nonruptured AAA as expressed by elevated CRP and IL-6 compared with the controls. In contrast, suPAR showed similar levels in patients with nonruptured AAA compared with the controls. Unexpectedly, all follow-up patients (n = 16) have significant (p  Conclusions suPAR does not seem to be a useful biomarker in the AAA disease. The role of the postoperative elevation of suPAR needs to be further elucidated.