• Sevket Balta, Dimitri P Mikhailidis, Sait Demirkol, Cengiz Ozturk, Ertugrul Kurtoglu, Mustafa Demir, Turgay Celik, Turker Turker, and Atila Iyisoy.
• Department of Cardiology, Eskişehir Military Hospital, Eskişehir, Turkey drsevketb@gmail.com.
• Angiology. 2014 Oct 1; 65 (9): 773-7.

AbstractEndothelial dysfunction is regarded as the initial lesion in the development of atherosclerosis. Endocan, previously called endothelial cell-specific molecule 1 (ESM-1), is a new candidate immunoinflammatory marker that may be associated with cardiometabolic risk factors. Therefore, we assessed serum levels of endocan in newly diagnosed patients with untreated essential hypertension (HT). A total of 18 patients with HT and 23 normotensive control participants were included in the study. Serum endocan levels, carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were measured. Serum endocan levels were significantly higher in the HT group (P < .001). In patients with HT, serum endocan levels correlated positively with cIMT and hsCRP (r = .551, P < .001 and r = .644, P < .001, respectively). Our findings suggest that circulating endocan levels represent a new marker in patients with essential HT. Endocan may be a surrogate endothelial dysfunction marker and may have a functional role in endothelium-dependent pathological disorders.© The Author(s) 2013.

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