Evaluation of Plasma Myeloperoxidase Levels in Patients with Premature Myocardial Infarction

The most significant consequence of coronary artery disease is myocardial infarction (MI), which accounts for most cardiac deaths. Differences between premature and nonpremature MI based on the inflammatory enzyme, myeloperoxidase (MPO), have not been fully elucidated. Therefore, we sought to investigate whether plasma MPO could differentiate patients with premature or non-premature MI as compared to control subjects. The participants included 42 patients with premature MI, 42 patients with non-premature MI, and 84 control subjects. The plasma concentration of MPO was determined with an enzyme immunoassay. Data were entered into SPSS-16 and analyzed by ANOVA, chi-squared, and Pearson correlation tests. Plasma MPO levels were significantly elevated in both premature and non-premature MI groups as compared to the control subjects (P < 0.01), but there were no differences between the patients and the controls by themselves (P > 0.05). Our findings demonstrated that plasma MPO levels could not differentiate between premature and non-premature acute MI, although it could differentiate patients from control subjects.