Cardiovascular disease biomarkers across autoimmune diseases

- Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of premature mortality in patients with autoimmune diseases
- Biomarkers are essential to identify, monitor and stratify those at risk for CVD complications of autoimmune diseases
- CVD biomarkers measure complement activation, endothelial dysfunction, inflammation and immune dysregulation.

Cardiovascular disease is increasingly recognized as a major cause of premature mortality among those with autoimmune disorders. There is an urgent need to identify those patients with autoimmune disease who are at risk for CVD so as to optimize therapeutic intervention and ultimately prevention. Accurate identification, monitoring and stratification of such patients will depend upon a panel of biomarkers of cardiovascular disease. This review will discuss some of the most recent biomarkers of cardiovascular diseases in autoimmune disease, including lipid oxidation, imaging biomarkers to characterize coronary calcium, plaque, and intima media thickness, biomarkers of inflammation and activated complement, genetic markers, endothelial biomarkers, and antiphospholipid antibodies. Clinical implementation of these biomarkers will not only enhance patient care but also likely accelerate the pharmaceutical pipeline for targeted intervention to reduce or eliminate cardiovascular disease in the setting of autoimmunity.