New biomarkers could revolutionize heart failure diagnosis
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Newly identified biomarkers could revolutionize heart failure diagnosis

04.11.2022

Chronic heart failure remains one of the main causes of death worldwide despite medical advances, and it is still responsible for debilitating more than 26 million people per year. There are two distinct forms of this complex condition: one in which the heart cannot pump with enough force to push a sufficient amount of blood into the circulation (HFrEF); and a second type in which the heart loses its ability to relax normally due to a stiff heart muscle (HFpEF).

Researchers at the Institute for Experimental Medical Research at the University of Oslo (UiO), have identified a panel of biomarkers in the blood presenting high performance in the detection of heart failure and its main forms.
Image: Scientists in white protective suits and masks work in the laboratory; Copyright: imagesourcecurated

Researchers have identified specific groups of biomarkers that could differentiate between types of heart failure.

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“There is an unmet need for a minimally invasive diagnostic tool for different forms of heart failure. One of the challenges lies in the appropriate identification of these two main forms. To date, there is currently no precise blood test that could do that job well, especially for patients with the second form of heart failure”, lead researcher Gustavo J. J. da Silva says.

“Our findings provide a better differentiation between these two main forms of heart failure. Such a diagnostic tool will indirectly assist physicians in their therapeutic decisions”, he adds.

Da Silva, together with Ph.D.-student Reza Parvan and colleagues, have focused their investigation on the diagnostic performance of small intracellular molecules, known as “microRNAs”. By screening 1999 studies and including 45 of those in a meta-analysis, they were able to generate a robust dataset containing 3464 patients against 2666 non-sick or healthy individuals.

“By doing that, we were able to identify specific panels containing seven to eight microRNAs with reasonable capacities for “ruling out” patients with two of the main forms of heart failure”, da Silva says.

“Furthermore, we have compared their performance against other biomarkers in use in the clinics and have demonstrated that microRNAs displayed additive values to conventional biomarkers in the diagnosis of this heart disease.”

The study is a collaboration with researchers from universities in Iran and Luxembourg.

“We aimed to investigate the diagnostic potential of circulating microRNAs for the detection of different forms of heart failure via a systematic review and meta-analysis approach.” Da Silva says.

The next step would be to perform the clinical validation of these biomarker panels.

“Eventually, we envision the use of next-generation of molecular biomarkers to screen heart failure patients at high risk in a rapid, accurate, and inexpensive way”, he concludes.

MEDICA-tradefair.com; Source: University of Oslo, Faculty of Medicine
More about University of Oslo, Faculty of Medicine at: www.med.uio.no/english

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