Significance of plasma free fatty acid level for assessing and diagnosing acute myocardial infarction.

Aim: To clarify the diagnostic value of the circulating free fatty acid (FFA) level for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in coronary heart disease patients. Methods & results: A total of 1776 patients were screened by coronary angiography from October 2014 to February 2016. The plasma FFA level was significantly higher in coronary heart disease patients with lesions in three or more vessels than those with lesions in one or two vessels. Moreover, an elevated FFA level was identified as an independent risk factor for AMI on multivariate regression analysis and shown to be a sensitive and specific indicator for AMI diagnosis by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Conclusion: An elevated FFA level is an independent risk factor and independent diagnostic marker for AMI.