Table 1.

In vivo Preanalytical Confounders in Identification and Analysis of Inflammatory Biomarkers in Cardiovascular Diseases.

Confounders	Summary	Reference
Demographic factors
Age and Sex	Aging increased serum levels of IL-6, CRP, and TNF-α; women have CRP levels higher than men	[27,28,32,35,36], [38]
Obesity	Obese people had significantly higher levels of CRP, TNF-α, and IL-6 than non-obese people.	[43,44]
Epidemiological factors
Arthritis	In RA conditions, there is an increase in IL-6, TNF-α, and CRP levels in OA	[51]
Diabetes	In diabetes, there is an increase in IL-6 and CRP levels	[52,53]
Autoimmune Disorders	In autoimmune disorders, there is an increase in IL-6 and CRP levels	[57]
Depression	In depression, there is an increase in both hs-CRP and CRP levels	[59,60]
Metabolic Syndrome	In autoimmune disorders, there is an increase in IL-6 and CRP levels
Substance use-related factors
Caffeine use	Caffeine consumption resulted in significantly higher concentrations of biomarkers IL-6 and IL-10 in plasma levels	[70]
Alcohol	Alcohol consumption resulted in increased in hs-CRP	[72,73]
Smoking	Alcohol consumption resulted in increased in CRP and IL-6	[75,76]
Medication-related factors
Antidepressants	Antidepressants are associated with a higher risk of elevated CRP in users of tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) medication	[78]
NSAIDS	Cyclooxygenase 2-selective NSAID lumiracoxib significantly increases the CRP level influencing cardiovascular complications	[81]
Statins and anti-hypertensive medications	Statin therapy lowered troponin levels; captopril and valsartan lowered IL-6, hs-CRP, and TNF-α	[82,84]