ST2 biomarker can help indicate prognosis in ambulatory cardiovascular patients

The novel cardiac biomarker ST2 was highlighted in a presentation at last month's 2011 Heart Failure Congress of the European Society of Cardiology in Gothenburg, Sweden. As this study and others have demonstrated, a patient's ST2 level can help a physician better predict prognosis in ambulatory, chronic heart failure patients, which can allow physicians to more appropriately tailor care.

"We concluded that measurement of ST2 may help us determine which patients are at highest risk," reports Dr. Antoni Bayes-Genis, Chair, Cardiology Service, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, "which should allow us to treat them more appropriately."

In this 891 patient study, both ST2 and NT-proBNP were good prognostic biomarkers of mortality. After adjustment for other significant clinical and therapeutic variables, both remained statistically significant independent prognostic factors. When patients were grouped according to ST2 and NT-proBNP median values, the combination of the two biomarkers significantly increased their prognostic discriminator capacity. Patients with both ST2 and NT-proBNP greater than or equal to the median were 5.5 times as likely to die as those with both values below their respective medians.

"We are pleased to continue our strong collaborations with the research community to generate compelling clinical evidence that ST2 predicts outcomes for ambulatory cardiovascular patients," said James Snider, President of Critical Diagnostics. "This study confirms, in a large European cohort, that ST2 is a powerful tool in the risk stratification of chronic heart failure patients, providing independent prognostic information beyond the baseline patient characteristics captured in clinical evaluation or using other biomarkers such as the natriuretic peptides."

Source: European Society of Cardiology