The effect of major depression on inşammatory variables in stable coronary artery disease

Objective: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a chronic inşammatory process, which is triggered by vascular endothelial damage. The increased catecholamine level in the blood contributes to the endothelial damage. The increased catecholamines strengthen thrombocyte activation and increase the hemodynamic stress on the blood vessel walls, which contributes to procoagulant processes. The previously published studies show that there was a significant relationship between major depression and CRP levels on CAD patients and studies drew attention to the relationship between MD and inşammation from cardiovascular morbidity perspective. It is thought that the increased sensitivity to the glucocorticoid inhibition made depressive patients more susceptible to inşammatory processes, which accelerates progression of cardiac disease. In this study our aim is to find the effect of CRP and fibrinogen, which are some of the MD inşammatory determinants on the stable CAD having patients.

Method: In the study, patient group consists of 65 CAD patients, who have major depression diagnosis according to DSM-IV-TR diagnosis measures and control group that consists of 54 CAD patients who didn’t have major depression diagnosis. The Montgomery Asberg depression rating scale (MADRS) is used for to define the level of disorder on the patients which have depression diagnosis. The fasting blood glucose under the cardiovascular risk factors and lipid parameters, CRP from the inşammatory variables, fibrinogen and full blood count parameters are measured in the both of the groups.

Results: The average age was found 59.9±10.4 for the patient group and 59.2±10.2 for the control group (p=0.715). The sociodemographic characteristics are found similar for patient and control groups. No significant difference was found for CAD risk factors and inşammatory parameters between patient and control groups.

Conclusion: Although CRP and fibrinogen levels are higher in the CAD patients, who have more major depression than CAD patients who don’t have major depression, it is not statistically meaningful.