NEW YORK (360Dx) – New studies are providing potential avenues for those interested in pursuing biomarkers related to everything from heart disease or heart failure risk to disease recurrence or complications in individuals with a history of heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, or other conditions related to cardiovascular health.
A University of Groningen-led team described findings from a study of 8,134 healthy adults participating in the "Prevention of renal and vascular end-stage disease" (PREVEND) project in the Netherlands, for example — work that set out to explore potential ties between cardiovascular disease development and enhanced blood levels of a somatostatin from the insulin-like growth factor-1/growth hormone pathway.
Members of the team found that 708 individuals developed heart disease and 517 died over the study's follow up time (more than a decade, on average). And it noted that rates of cardiovascular disease and overall mortality were significantly higher in individuals with enhanced plasma levels of the somatostatin of interest, called plasma N-terminal fragment prosomatostatin.
Investigators from Duke University proposed another marker for predicting heart disease and mortality. Based on results for 7,617 participants in a cardiac catheterization biorepository, they saw signs that an inflammatory biomarker called GlycA in the blood serum was linked to heart disease and other causes of mortality, perhaps through interactions with high-density lipoprotein profiles.
While researchers from the University of Minnesota and elsewhere presented findings from a prospective trial using low cardiac troponin I levels to rule out myocardial injury in thousands of emergency room patients, on the other hand, a McMaster University-led team looked at the effectiveness of incorporating cardiac troponin and glycemic markers such as glucose into diagnostic algorithms for myocardial infarction, based on data for more than 1,100 individuals in its own emergency department. Another international team focused on potential ties between elevated cardiac troponin I levels and cardiovascular events in individuals with known atherosclerosis.
The papers are part of a collection appearing in a special issue of Clinical Chemistry that focuses on cardiovascular disease. Also appearing in the issue are studies and review articles centered on a range of possible lipid, protein, or glycosylation markers for forms of heart failure, along with analyses of markers that may point to coronary heart disease complications, stoke, or increased mortality risk in individuals with type 2 diabetes.