European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Objective: To compare the levels of microRNA (miRNA) 24 levels in diabetic patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS)with non-diabetics suffering from ACS. Methodology: A prospective case-control study was carried out among 40 patients with ACS residing in Belagavi, Karnataka, South India. Patient characteristics based on demographics, ACS related information and treatment, biochemical parameters, and miRNA-24 levels were compared between diabetics and non-diabetics. Finally, miRNA-24 was evaluated for effectiveness as a clinical biomarker for CAD severity in ACS pateints in both the groups. Results: The majority of patients were males between the age group of 18 and 77 years living in urban areas with physical activities restricted to NHYA class 2.  A significant level of differences was found between the cases and controls inpatient characteristics such as duration of diabetes diagnosis, treatment of diabetes, family history of diabetes, comorbidities, random blood sugar and HbA1c. Within the levels of miR-24 also, significant variation was observed between the diabetics and non-diabetics. The ROC analysis for evaluating the efficiency of miR-24 as a clinical biomarker for diabetic patients with ACS was established.  Conclusions: The control (non-diabetic) group showed significant CT values of miRNA-24 compared to diabetics, suggesting an up-regulation of mi-RNA and thereby may play a protective role of miRNA-24 in these patients. Moreover, the ROC analysis for fold change in miRNA-24 level in diabetic patients with ACS was found to be significant, suggestive of a possible link between expression of miRNA-24 and glucose levels. Therefore, the current study supports the use of miRNA-24 as a prognostic marker inACS outcome.