Heart cells as seen through a microscope. Photo by Cedars-Sinai.
Cedars-Sinai Discovery May Aid Doctors in Diagnosing At-risk Patients Before Symptoms Appear
A team led by a Cedars-Sinai physician-scientist has discovered a biomarker—a protein found in the blood—for the most common type of heart failure, a new study published today in JAMA Cardiology shows.
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) affects more than 6.5 million Americans each year. And now, thanks to the discovery of the first-ever biomarker for HFpEF, a simple blood test can reveal whether a patient’s heart is not making enough of an important protein. If the protein levels are decreased, the biomarker signal increases and physicians will be able to diagnose heart failure sooner, prescribe corrective medicines and prevent further disease progression.
“By the time heart failure symptoms develop, the critical window for corrective therapy has typically closed,” said Robin Shaw, MD, PhD, the Wasserman Endowed Chair in Cardiology and professor of Medicine at the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai and principal investigator on the study. “Our discovery allows us to not only diagnose the disease sooner, but also to treat patients before that critical period of early intervention for lifesaving care has closed.”
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is a condition where the heart can contract, but has problems relaxing—limiting the heart’s ability to fill with blood between each beat—and therefore lowers the amount of blood moving forward with each contraction. Prior to the discovery of the biomarker, clinicians had to wait for patients to have symptoms to make a diagnosis of HFpEF and had to use an echocardiogram that measured how well the heart relaxed. There was no method to gauge the health of the heart muscle before symptoms developed or determine the severity of disease once symptoms were present.
The biomarker—named cBIN1 Score, or CS for short—allows doctors to measure muscle deterioration and measure a protein that regulates the heart’s ability to both contract and relax. As the protein decreases, CS increases, serving as an indication of onset heart failure. The CS biomarker can be measured using a simple blood draw.
This discovery will allow the most at-risk patients—including older patients and patients with high blood pressure, diabetes or dyslipidemia—to be checked during an annual exam from their primary care physician. This pivotal research has the potential to impact millions of people and serve as a critical tool for preventive heart care.
Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, director, Smidt Heart Institute
The CS biomarker is designed to be used in an outpatient clinic setting. For patients with known HFpEF, doctors can draw a CS level and use it to both guide current care, including medication adjustments, and predict the chances of a patient being admitted to the hospital in the next 12 months.
“More broadly, this discovery will allow the most at-risk patients—including older patients and patients with high blood pressure, diabetes or dyslipidemia—to be checked during an annual exam from their primary care physician,” said Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, director of the Smidt Heart Institute. “This pivotal research has the potential to impact millions of people and serve as a critical tool for preventive heart care.”
Symptoms of heart failure typically appear as fatigue, fluid weight gain, leg swelling and shortness of breath. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is typically diagnosed in elderly people or those living with high blood pressure, diabetes, elevated cholesterol, hypertension, obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, anemia, iron deficiency or diabetes. Its prevalence is projected to rise drastically over the coming decades. Previous studies have shown that women represent the majority of patients diagnosed with the disease.
As next steps, Cedars-Sinai researchers plan on identifying specialty populations in which the CS biomarker could be useful, including sex-based differences, those who have undergone a heart transplant or valve replacement, as well as individuals with no known heart disease or risk factors.
Learn more: Biomarker Discovered for Most Common Form of Heart Failure
The Latest on: Heart failure
via Google News
The Latest on: Heart failure
- Medical Examiner: Inmate Died From Attack And Heart Diseaseon March 5, 2021 at 11:11 pm
The death of a Cuyahoga County Jail inmate who was killed in his cell last year has been ruled a homicide. The county medical examiner determined that 48-year-old Shone Trawick died from a combination ...
- Heart disease: Good quality cheese could 'indirectly protect the heart' says doctoron March 5, 2021 at 8:01 pm
HEART disease is a life-threatening condition, characterised by chest pain, shortness of breath and feeling faint and nauseous. This is because blood flow to the heart is restricted by fatty deposits ...
- Inmate killed in cell died of heart disease, cellmate attackon March 5, 2021 at 1:06 pm
The county medical examiner determined that Shone Trawick, 48, died from a combination of an attack by a cellmate and heart disease. Trawick was serving six months in jail on misdemeanor charges when ...
- Association of maternal gut microbiota and plasma metabolism with congenital heart disease in offspring: a multi-omic analysison March 5, 2021 at 8:58 am
Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common congenital disorder diagnosed in newborns. Although lots of related studies have been published, yet the pathogenesis has not been fully elucidated. A ...
- Coffee drinking tied to lower risk of heart failureon March 4, 2021 at 6:53 pm
A new analysis of heart failure found one dietary factor in particular that was associated with a lower risk: drinking coffee. A large analysis looked at hundreds of factors that may influence the ...
- Study finds high rates of heart disease among Hispanic men, womenon March 4, 2021 at 1:25 pm
More than half of Hispanic men, and nearly half of Hispanic women, in the United States have heart disease, according to an analysis published Thursday by the journal Stroke.
- Few pro athletes suffer heart disease after mild COVID -study by N American sports leagueson March 4, 2021 at 1:00 pm
There are few cases of inflammatory heart disease among professional athletes who suffer mild cases of COVID-19, according to a study authored by medical experts from Major League Baseball (MLB), the ...
- Inflammatory heart disease is rare among professional athletes with mild COVID-19, study findson March 4, 2021 at 11:54 am
Inflammatory heart disease is a rare finding among professional athletes with mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 infection, a large-scale study has found.
- Hispanic People at Risk for Heart Disease Going Untreatedon March 4, 2021 at 11:08 am
Even after suffering a stroke, many Hispanic Americans still have uncontrolled diabetes, high blood pressure or other conditions that raise their risk of a repeat one, a new study finds.
via Bing News