Biomarkers of Coronary Artery Disease Differ Between Asians and Caucasians in the General Population

•Biomarkers for coronary artery disease differ between Asians and Caucasians.•Biomarkers for coronary artery disease differ among Asian ethnic groups.•Ethnicity-specific prognostic values of biomarkers have not been studied.•Ethnicity-specific prognostic values of biomarkers are needed for risk prediction.

Coronary artery disease (CAD) markers have not been thoroughly investigated among Asians. The incidence of CAD, however, is rising rapidly in Asia. In this review, we systematically discuss publications that compare CAD biomarkers between Asians and Caucasians in the general population. A PubMed search yielded 5,570 hits, containing 59 articles describing 47 unique cohorts that directly compare Asians with Caucasians. Ten biomarkers were taken into account for this review: total cholesterol; triglycerides; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol; low-density lipoprotein cholesterol; C-reactive protein; glucose; insulin; glycated hemoglobin; fibrinogen; and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1. Triglycerides were 1.13-fold higher in South Asians than in Caucasians, and insulin levels were 1.33-fold higher. In Japanese and Chinese subjects, lower C-reactive protein levels were reported: 0.52 and 0.36-fold, respectively. Ethnicity-specific prognostic measures of CAD biomarkers were rarely reported. CAD biomarker levels differ between Asians and Caucasians and among Asian ethnic groups in population-based cohorts. The ethnicity-specific prognostic value of CAD biomarkers is yet to be determined.