Biomarkers of pulmonary hypertension in patients with scleroderma: a case–control study

Table 2 Biomarker levels in all patients with or without pulmonary hypertension with scleroderma

Biomarkers	PH (n = 37)	No PH (n = 40)	p value
IL-5	1.0 (0.7–1.6) (n = 35)	1.4 (0.8–2.0) (n = 35)	0.65
IL-8	7.2 (3.9–30.4)	5.7 (4.0–108.4) (n = 39)	0.95
IL-12	2.0 (1.3–4.3) (n = 35)	2.5 (1.5–4.5) (n = 38)	0.44
TNF-α	9.2 (6.2–18.8)	6.5 (4.4–113.9)	0.53
VEGF	174.0 (101.6–317.3)	129.0 (75.6–446.7)	0.51
bFGF	11.0 (5.5–21.3) (n = 33)	8.1 (4.0–19.3) (n = 36)	0.52
PlGF	24.8 (16.3–31.0) (n = 33)	19.7 (15.3–22.9) (n = 33)	0.02
sFlt-1	101.8 (87.6–149.2)	89.7 (65.9–120.7)	0.02
HGF	241.1 (153.3–400.5)	181.6 (101.6–391.1)	0.17

Abbreviations: bFGF basic fibroblast growth factor, HGF hepatocyte growth factor, IL interleukin, PH pulmonary hypertension, PlGF placental growth factor, sFlt-1 soluble fms-like tyrosine kinase-1, TNF tumor necrosis factor, VEGF vascular endothelial growth factor
Data are presented as median (interquartile range) in picograms per milliliter.
Numbers vary between cytokines and growth factors because of slight variations in the number of values that were excluded from each group (those values that were out of quantifiable range of the assay)

ISSN: 1478-6362