In a study from the University of Pennsylvania, scientists found that bloodstream levels of a protein fragment called endotrophin can be used to predict outcomes in patients with a common form of heart failure.
The findings suggest that blood testing for endotrophin may eventually become a standard part of cardiologists’ toolkits for assessing heart failure patients.
Heart failure is a condition with many causes, all resulting in the failure of the heart to pump enough blood to meet the demands of the rest of the body.
When chronically overloaded in this way, the heart often grows larger and undergoes other changes that lead to further weakening.
The findings apply particularly to the common form of heart failure called heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF).
In HFpEF, the heart loses pumping efficiency because its main pumping muscle becomes too stiff to relax sufficiently between pumping actions. In addition, several abnormalities in organs other than the heart are thought to play a role.
In the study, the researchers investigated endotrophin blood levels as a potential prognostic biomarker for HFpEF.
Researchers first analyzed endotrophin levels in blood samples taken from 205 patients.
Over a four-year follow-up period, patients with the highest level of endotrophin, compared to those with the lowest, had severalfold increased risks of having a heart attack, being hospitalized for the management of heart failure, or dying from any heart cause.
These patients also had severalfold increased rates of death from any cause during those four years.
The researchers determined that endotrophin levels were a better predictor of most severe HFpEF outcomes when compared to two other prognostic indicators already in use.
Based on these findings, the researchers are now developing an endotrophin blood test for possible future use in assessing HFpEF patients in the clinic.
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The study was conducted by Julio Chirinos et al and published in the New England Journal of Medicine Evidence.
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