Batra G, Lakic TG, Lindbäck J, et al. - Evaluation of interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels and chronic kidney disease (CKD) stage could assist in identifying patients with chronic coronary syndrome for anti-inflammatory treatment.

• Inflammation encourages cardiovascular disease and anti-inflammatory treatment decreases cardiovascular events in patients having chronic coronary syndrome.

• This is a cohort study of 14,611 patients with chronic coronary syndrome from whom IL-6 and estimated glomerular filtration rates were obtained to determine links between IL-6 and cardiovascular outcomes in these patients in association with kidney function.

• Major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) (defined as a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, and stroke) occurred in 10.0% (n=1,459) of patients during follow-up.

• In continuous models, higher levels of IL-6 were found to be independently linked with risk of MACE in all CKD strata.

• Elevated IL-6 was in categorical analysis (IL-6 ≥2.0 ng/L vs <2.0 ng/L) linked with MACE in all CKD strata.