- 207 healthy subjects were donors,(33.2±12.2 years) recruited from the Blood Bank Department of the University Hospital (Mahdia, Tunisia).

- 310 subjects with CAD (60.3±11.0 years) were admitted to the Department of Cardiology, University Hospital (Monastir, Tunisia).

• Glucose (mmol/l), urae (mmol/l), creatinin (µmol/l), total cholesterol (mmol/l), high density lipoprotein cholesterol, HDL-C (mmol/l), triglycerides (mmol/l), lipoprotein(a) (g/l), apolipoproteins, apo (g/l) were measured only once in each patient at admission, before angiography and in each control group participant using the COBAS INTEGRA 400 chemical analyzer (Roche Diagnostic, Germany).
• Troponin I (ng/ml), creatine kinase (CK) (UI/L), creatine kinase MB Isoenzyme (CK-MB)(UI/L), glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (ASAT) (UI/L) were measured using the COBAS INTEGRA 400 chemical analyzer (Roche Diagnostic, Germany). Only one measure was performed for each participant regarding all these parameters.
• Light density lipoprotein cholesterol, LDL-C (mmol/l) was estimated using the Friedewald equation. Only one measure was performed for each participant.
• Values which were out of the confidence range were considered as abnormal values.

• Serum Amyloid A (SAA) (mg/l) was measured using the BN Prospec, Siemens.
• High sensitivity C reactive protein, hsCRP (mg/l) was measured using the COBAS INTEGRA 400 chemical analyzer (Roche Diagnostic, Germany).
• Activin A (pg/ml) was quantified at 450nm using a commercially available ELISA kit (AbFrontier, Young In Frontier Co., Ltd, Korea). Only one measure was performed for each participant.
• Interleukin-6 (pg/ml) was measured using a Cobas E601 analyzer (Roche Diagnostics, Germany). Only one measure was performed for each participant.
• Values which were out of the confidence range were considered as abnormal values.