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. 2022 Jun 24;23(7):224.
doi: 10.31083/j.rcm2307224. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Systolic Pulmonary Artery Pressure and Cardiovascular Biomarkers-New Non-Invasive Ways to Detect Pulmonary Hypertension in Patients with Severe Aortic Valve Stenosis Undergoing TAVR?

Elke Boxhammer  1 , Clara Köller  1 , Vera Paar  1 , Dzeneta Fejzic  1 , Richard Rezar  1 , Christian Reiter  2 , Jürgen Kammler  1   2 , Jörg Kellermair  2 , Matthias Hammerer  1 , Hermann Blessberger  2 , Clemens Steinwender  1   2 , Uta C Hoppe  1 , Michael Lichtenauer  1
Affiliations

Systolic Pulmonary Artery Pressure and Cardiovascular Biomarkers-New Non-Invasive Ways to Detect Pulmonary Hypertension in Patients with Severe Aortic Valve Stenosis Undergoing TAVR?

Elke Boxhammer et al. Rev Cardiovasc Med. .

Abstract

Background: Patients with severe aortic valve stenosis (AS) frequently present with pulmonary hypertension (PH). The gold standard for detection of pulmonary hypertension is right heart catheterization, which is not routinely performed as a preoperative standard in cardiology centers today, neither before surgical valve replacement nor before transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure. Echocardiographic determination of systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP) provides an opportunity to assess the presence or absence of PH. The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which plasma levels of common cardiovascular biomarkers behave in patients with severe AS and an sPAP < 40 mmHg in comparison to patients with an sPAP ≥ 40 mmHg.

Methods: 179 patients with echocardiographic evidence of severe AS before TAVR procedure were divided into 2 groups based on sPAP. An sPAP of 40 mmHg was considered the cut-off value, with absence of PH defined by an sPAP < 40 mmHg (n = 82) and presence of PH defined by an sPAP ≥ 40 mmHg (n = 97). Directly before TAVR, a blood sample was drawn from each patient, and plasma concentrations of the cardiovascular biomarkers Soluble Suppression of Tumorigenicity-2 (sST2), Growth/Differentiation of Factor-15 (GDF-15), Heart-Type Fatty-Acid Binding Protein (H-FABP), Insulin Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 2 (IGF-BP2), Soluble Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator Receptor (suPAR), Brain Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) and Cardiac Troponin I (cTnI) were determined.

Results: Patients with an sPAP ≥ 40 mmHg had significantly higher sST2 (p = 0.010), GDF-15 (p = 0.005), IGF-BP2 (p = 0.029), suPAR (p = 0.018), BNP (p < 0.001) and cTnI (p = 0.039) plasma levels. Only for H-FABP (p = 0.069), no significant differences were discernible between the two groups. In addition, cut-off values were calculated to predict an sPAP ≥ 40 mmHg. Significant results were shown with 16045.84 pg/mL for sST2 (p = 0.010), with 1117.54 pg/mL for GDF-15 (p = 0.005), with 107028.43 pg/mL for IGF-BP2 (p = 0.029), with 3782.84 pg/mL for suPAR (p = 0.018), with 2248.00 pg/mL for BNP (p < 0.001) and with 20.50 pg/mL for cTnI (p = 0.002).

Conclusions: sPAP as an echocardiographic parameter in combination with supplementary use of cardiovascular biomarkers presented here have the potential to provide more detailed information about the presence or absence of PH in a non-invasive way.

Keywords: aortic valve stenosis; biomarker; pulmonary hypertension; systolic pulmonary artery pressure.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. Michael Lichtenauer is serving as one of the Guest editors of this journal. We declare that Michael Lichtenauer had no involvement in the peer review of this article and has no access to information regarding its peer review. Full responsibility for the editorial process for this article was delegated to Dinesh Kalra.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Biomarker analysis. Serum concentrations of sST2 (A), GDF-15 (B), H-FABP (C), IGF-BP2 (D), suPAR (E) and BNP (F) in patients with an sPAP <40 mmHg and with an sPAP ≥40 mmHg.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
AUROC analysis of biomarkers. AUROC analyses of sST2 (A), GDF-15 (B), H-FABP (C), IGF-BP2 (D), suPAR (E) and BNP (F) for prediction of sPAP ≥40 mmHg with concerning cut-off values, Youden Index, sensitivity and specificity.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Correlation of sPAP and biomarkers. Correlation analyses between sPAP and cardiovascular biomarkers of sST2 (A), GDF-15 (B), H-FABP (C), IGF-BP2 (D), suPAR (E) and BNP (F).
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Kaplan-Meier curves for detection of 1-year survival in dependence of several risk groups. I: sPAP <40 mmHg; II: sPAP 40–59 mmHg; III: sPAP ≥60 mmHg; Log-rank test I vs. II: p = 0.123; I vs. III: p = 0.007; II vs. III: p = 0.154.
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