Protein biomarkers for predicting incident carotid plaque: a nested case-control study in the ChinaHEART cohort with transportability assessment in the UK Biobank

Objectives Carotid plaque is an early manifestation of atherosclerosis and is closely associated with the risk of myocardial ischaemia, ischaemic stroke and other atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (ASCVDs). To identify new protein biomarkers associated with carotid plaque, which will enhance early warning of ASCVDs Design Nested case - control study within a prospective cohort, with external assessment of transportability in an independent population-based cohort.

Participants and data sources The development cohort is from China, which is a nationwide, community-based cohort and the external validation cohort is from the UK Biobank in the UK. In the development cohort, 292 participants without carotid plaque at baseline were included, comprising 145 incident cases and 147 matched controls selected based on age, sex, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, smoking status and diabetes history.

In the validation dataset, 30 800 participants without baseline cardiovascular disease were included from a large population-based cohort.