Abstract

Atherosclerosis is the main cause of myocardial infarction (MI) and inflammation is considered as a main cause of atherosclerosis. Inflammatory indicators such as C-reactive protein (CRP) are considered as a diagnostic marker for MI in recent years. We studied the relationship between seropositivity to CRP and high-sensitivity- reactive protein (hsCRP) with MI and compared their relationship and diagnostic values. All sera of patients and control cases were examined by a commercial quantitative ELISA kit for measuring hsCRP and by a non-quantitative latex agglutination kit for detecting CRP, simultaneously. Results were analyzed by chi -square statistic test in SPSS software version 16. About 62.0% of patients were positive for CRP and 100% positive for hsCRP but in control group, seropositivity rate was 6.6% for CRP and 52.6% for hsCRP. Mean titer of hsCRP in patients was 23.2 but 6.3 mg/l in control group. We found significant relationship between CRP and MI (P=0.004) and with hsCRP with MI (P=0.002). hsCRP and CRP have significant relationship to MI as diagnostic indicators and hsCRP is more sensitive than CRP but regarding to their false positive and negative values, and for decreasing their accuracy, it is recommended to perform both simultaneously.

Key words: C-reactive protein (CRP), high-sensitivity- reactive protein (hsCRP), myocardial infarction.