Chikungunya virus (CHIKV)
infection is an emerging arboviral disease that has spread geographically to many previously unaffected areas. Although severe cases of acute CHIKV
infection have been documented, little is known about its pathogenesis. We aimed to determine the levels of cardiovascular
biomarkers in fatal and non-fatal patients with acute CHIKV
infection. This study included fatal and non-fatal patients with CHIKV reported to National System for Public Health Surveillance and laboratory-confirmed by the Colombian National Institute of Health. Each fatal patient was matched to 2 non-fatal patients for age (± 10 years). Blood samples were processed for cardiovascular
biomarkers by multiplex immunoassays. Twenty-five cases of fatal CHIKV
infection and 50 patients of non-fatal CHIKV
infection were included. Nearly 20% of the population were under 10 years old and 52% were over 60. The median serum levels of endocan-1 (p = 0.000),
creatine kinase MB isoenzyme (p = 0.000), oncostatin (p = 0.000),
fatty-acid-binding protein 3 (p = 0.000) and
fatty-acid-binding protein 4 (p = 0.000) were significantly higher in fatal CHIKV
infection cases than in non-fatal patients.
Troponin I tended to be higher in fatal CHIKV
infection cases than in non-fatal CHIKV
infection patients (p = 0.063). Among fatal patients, no significant differences were found in serum levels of cardiovascular
biomarkers among younger (< 50 years-old) and older (≥ 50 years-old) patients. We found high serum levels of cardiovascular
biomarkers in fatal CHIKV
infection. These results promote the fact that endothelial and cardiac damage can occurs and may be significant factors related organ failure and death in these patients.