C-reactive protein, interleukin 6, fibrinogen and risk of sudden death in European middle aged men: the PRIME study

Objective—To examine prospectively the association of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, interleukin 6, and fibrinogen with sudden death in asymptomatic European men.

Methods and Results—Among the 9771 men from the Etude PRospective de l’Infarctus du Myocarde (PRIME) Study, 664 had a first coronary heart disease over 10 years, including 50 sudden deaths, 34 nonsudden coronary deaths, and 580 nonfatal coronary heart disease events. For each outcome, 2 matched controls, who were free of coronary heart disease at the index date, were randomly selected from the initial cohort (nested case control study design). There was a 3-fold increased risk (95% CI, 1.20 to 7.81) of sudden death between the upper and the lower third of interleukin 6 after adjustment for baseline confounders in conditional logistic regression analysis. Neither high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hazard ratiothird versus first tertile=1.27; 95% CI, 0.51 to 3.17) nor fibrinogen (hazard ratiothird versus first tertile=1.90; 95% CI, 0.76 to 4.75) was associated with sudden death. For comparison, there was a 6-fold increased risk of nonsudden coronary death from the highest compared with the lowest tertile of fibrinogen and a trend toward an association with higher C-reactive protein and higher interleukin 6. All 3 inflammatory biomarkers were moderately, but significantly, associated with nonfatal coronary heart disease.

Conclusion—Interleukin 6, but not high-sensitivity C-reactive protein or fibrinogen, is an independent predictor of sudden death in asymptomatic European men.