Improved value of cardiac biomarkers makes for a long life

With an ever ageing population and more people surviving a heart attack, heart failure is now the world’s most prevalent chronic cardiovascular disease.

Yet despite improvements in its diagnosis and management, heart failure remains a stubbornly incurable condition with a poor prognosis, largely amenable to little more than palliative therapy.

Heart failure describes a syndrome of symptoms without a single diagnostic test. However, the discovery and application of markers of disease (biomarkers) have improved risk stratification in heart failure and made earlier detection possible.

Now, reports in the April issue of the European Journal of Heart Failure, suggest two more efficient applications of biomarkers, and with them the promise of even earlier diagnosis and improved treatment.

1. According to results from a study in Hull, UK, repeat measurement of the well established biomarker N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) once treatment has been optimised, provides stronger prognostic information than either the baseline value, the change in NT-proBNP, or other conventional methods of assessment.

2. A study from Sweden suggests the combined application of two independently established biomarkers gives better prognostic information about the risk of cardiovascular mortality in heart failure patients than just one biomarker.

Commenting on the implications of the findings, Professor Karl Swedberg, editor-in-chief of the European Journal of Heart Failure, said, “A combination of biomarkers to improve diagnosis and prognosis, as suggested by Alehagen and colleagues, now seems to be the basis of optimal management of patients with heart failure”.