Cav-1 Blood Test Could Spot Heart Disease Early in China

Researchers studied 160 people who got heart checks at a hospital in Shanxi, China, from September 2024 to February 2025. The group had 105 patients with blocked arteries and 55 healthy volunteers.

They took blood samples and measured a protein called caveolin‑1 with a lab test. Patients with coronary artery disease had lower levels, about 7.0 nanograms per milliliter, while healthy people had about 8.5. The difference was clear and statistically important (p = 0.001).

After adjusting for age, sex, cholesterol and other markers, each extra nanogram lowered the disease risk by 18 percent. The odds ratio was 0.82, and the confidence interval did not include 1, showing a real effect. Those in the highest quartile had only one‑fifth the risk of the lowest quartile, with an odds ratio of 0.20. A trend test showed a steady drop in risk as the protein rose (p < 0.01). The link was straight, with no sign of a curved pattern (p for nonlinearity = 0.812).

When they added albumin to the measurement, the test’s ability to discriminate disease improved, reaching an AUC of 88.4 percent. That is close to the full model’s 89.8 percent, so the combination works well. These findings suggest a simple blood test could help doctors assess heart disease risk beyond the usual factors.