The risk of death in heart failure can be predicted using a biomarker

Will it ever be possible to predict cardiac complications? If this question remains delicate despite scientific progress, researchers believe they have found a way to help patients with heart failure. A new study by researchers from UCLA, University of California Los Angeles (USA) reveals a new biomarker that could help predict which patients with stable heart failure have a higher risk of dying within one to three years. The results of their study were published in the journal JAMA Cardiology.

Currently, scientists do not understand why half of people who develop heart failure die within five years of their diagnosis when others — who receive the same treatments — have a longer life expectancy.

Twenty died during the study

For the purposes of their study, which took place between 2013 and 2015, the researchers analyzed the blood of 105 patients at Massachusetts General Hospital with stabilized heart failure. The team was looking for an effective biomarker, such as neuropeptide Y, an amino acid secreted by a neuron that notably regulates blood pressure. Importantly, most of the people depicted in the experiment were men (78%) who were in treatment (90%).

Looking at the first results, the researchers found that the concentration of neuropeptide Y was significantly higher in women, diabetic patients (especially those insulin-dependent) and in people with high blood pressure (especially in those taking hydralazine, a vasodilator).

During the study, 20 of the 105 volunteer patients died, and all had in common a concentration of neuropeptide Y in the blood greater than 130pg/mL. According to the researchers, when the presence of neuropeptide Y goes beyond 130 picograms per milliliter of blood, the risk of death within one to three years is increased tenfold, compared to those whose level of neuropeptide Y is weak.

More present and less efficient neuropeptides

In order to verify their theory, the team then compared samples of sympathetic nervous system ganglia from volunteer patients with those from healthy donors. It is in some of these structures that the neuropeptide Y is “housed”. They noticed that people with heart failure produced more neuropeptide Y than healthy subjects, and that the immune reaction to these neuropeptides was significantly reduced. than in a healthy person.

For the team, this study constitutes an important step in the improvement of patient care, because it will ultimately make it possible to distinguish among people suffering from heart failure, those whose prognosis is life-threatening from those whose affection can be managed without special monitoring. Finally, this study highlights the need for health professionals caring for patients with heart failure to take an interest in what is happening within their nervous system, in order to act upstream to optimize their life expectancy. .