Plasma RANTES level is correlated with cardio-cerebral atherosclerosis burden in patients with ischemic cerebrovascular disease.

Background: Regulated upon activation, normal T-cell expressed, and secreted (RANTES) is a chemokine actively involved in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis (AS), which is the major cause of ischemic cerebrovascular disease (ICVD). This study aimed to determine the associations between circulating RANTES level and overall AS conditions of cardiac and cerebral vessel beds in patients with ICVD.

Methods: Patients with ICVD admitted to the department of neurology of Xuanwu Hospital from April 1, 2019 to June 30, 2019 were prospectively enrolled in the study. Plasma RANTES level was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to represent the circulating RANTES level. The integrated AS burden of the cervicocephalic and coronary arteries was examined using computed tomography angiography and reflected by "cardio-cerebral AS burden (CCAB)" as a continuous variable. Then, the relationship of plasma RANTES level and CCAB in patients with ICVD was analyzed by correlation analyses and general linear models.

Results: A total of 40 patients with ICVD were included in the study. There was a significant positive correlation between CCAB and plasma RANTES level in ICVD ( r  = 0.786, P  < 0.001), independent of age, sex, acute or chronic phase of ICVD, and mono or dual antiplatelet therapy (adjusted B for ln RANTES, 12.063; 95% confidence interval, 7.572-16.533). The association of plasma RANTES level with AS conditions (burden, severity, and extent) in single cardiac or cerebral vessel bed was similar to that with CCAB, but the correlation coefficient for CCAB was higher (increment ranged from 0.126 to 0.397).

Conclusions: Plasma RANTES level was an independent indicator for the integrated AS burden of the cervicocephalic and coronary arteries in ICVD. Comprehensive evaluation of AS conditions using the novel continuous index CCAB might be important in revealing the systematic relationship between circulating RANTES and AS in patients with ICVD.