Biomarkers in coronary artery disease: systematic review and meta-analysis

Coronary artery disease is one of the biggest killers of people worldwide. The underlying cause is a heart attack that is caused by the rupture of a fatty fibrous growth in a coronary artery. This leads to the formation of a blood clot that then cuts off the blood supply to downstream regions of the heart. Greater prevention and treatment are linked to early detection. At present a single biomarker for the detection of the early stages of coronary artery disease is elusive. The answer maybe to identify a panel of biomarkers that could be used as point of care detectors using graphene-based devices such as those designed and built at University of Plymouth in the UK. This is the aim of this work, which uses an analytical approach called meta-analysis to investigate a range of different putative biomarkers in diseased vs control patients. The results showed that 11 of 13 tested biomarkers had potential. This opens the way to further testing to assess their feasibility for use with the graphene-based detection devices.