Chin-Chou Huang, Meng-Ting Chang, Lie-Fen Shyur, Jaw-Wen Chen

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are thought to be beneficial to cardiovascular health. In cohort studies and randomized controlled trials, consuming PUFA in place of saturated fatty acid (SFAs) or monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) reduced coronary heart diseases. PUFAs, which cannot be synthesized de novo by mammals, consist mainly of two families, omega-3 (found in fish oil) and omega-6 (found in soybean oil). Both arachidonic acid and linoleic acid are omega-6 PUFAs. The roles of omega-6 PUFA are still confusing. We aimed to investigate the potential impacts of the presence of PUFA metabolites on clinical outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Total 75 patients with CAD were enrolled into the study, including 25 patients with future acute myocardial infarction and 50 patients without future cardiovascular events during 2 years. The detailed demographic data, comorbidities, personal history, family history, and drug exposure history of all the subjects were recorded. They also received blood sampling for a series of biomarkers and PUFA metabolites. When comparing to those without future cardiovascular events, patients with future acute myocardial infarction had higher baseline levels of 11 arachidonic acid metabolites. We concluded that CAD patients with future acute myocardial infarction had higher baseline levels of arachidonic acid metabolites when comparing to those without future cardiovascular events, which imply its potential roles as clinical predictors for cardiovascular events in patients with CAD.