Association between growth differentiation factor-15 and chronic heart failure in coronary atherosclerosis patients

• Published in: Genetics and molecular research 2015-03, Vol.14 (1), p.2225-2233
• Main Authors: Zhu, Z D, Sun, T
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biomarkers - blood; Chronic Disease; Coronary Artery Disease - blood; Coronary Artery Disease - diagnosis; Coronary Artery Disease - physiopathology; Echocardiography; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; Female; Growth Differentiation Factor 15 - blood; Heart Failure - blood; Heart Failure - diagnosis; Heart Failure - physiopathology; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Natriuretic Peptide, Brain - blood; Peptide Fragments - blood; ROC Curve; Ventricular Dysfunction, Left - diagnosis; Ventricular Dysfunction, Left - physiopathology
• ISSN: 1676-5680; 1676-5680
• DOI: 10.4238/2015.March.27.8

We explored the association between plasma growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) levels and chronic heart failure (CHF) in coronary heart disease patients. We measured plasma GDF-15 and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels in 269 untreated coronary heart disease patients (98 with CHF, 84 without CHF, and 87 control patients) using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. All subjects were examined by echocardiography and left ventricular ejection fraction. We found that plasma GDF-15 levels in coronary atherosclerosis patients with CHF [median 1622.48 (25-75th percentile: 887.53-1994.93) ng/L] were higher than those in coronary atherosclerosis patients without CHF [944.99 (856.12-999.78) ng/L] and control patients (P < 0.05). NT-proBNP showed the same trend as GDF-15. We also used the New York Heart Association functional classification to subgroup CHF patients and found that the GDF-15 level was higher in all subgroup patients with CHF. After adjusting for covariates, plasma GDF-15 levels were found to be positively related to NT-proBNP (r = 0.861, P < 0.001) and negatively related to left ventricular ejection fraction (r = -0.936, P < 0.001). Furthermore, receiver operating characteristic curves of GDF-15 and NT-proBNP were constructed and the area under the curve for the untransformed GDF-15 and NT-proBNP was 0.804 and 0.795, respectively. Plasma GDF-15 levels and NT-proBNP are associated with CHF in coronary atherosclerosis patients and can be used as biomarkers.