Association between the severity of coronary artery disease and ST2 expression in patients with heart failure
Aim: to study the association between ST2 (sST2) and severity of coronary artery lesion in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), and to analyze changes in sST2 levels and left ventricle (LV) remodeling indicators depending on complete or incomplete myocardial revascularization (MR) after the 12-month follow-up period.Patients and Methods: a total of 118 patients (16.1% women, mean age of 62.5 [57; 68] years) with stable coronary heart disease (CHD) with LV ejection fraction 60% [46; 64] and CHF of NYHA functional class I–III were enrolled in the study. All patients underwent MR. Depending on the completeness of the performed MR, all patients were retrospectively divided into 2 groups: group 1 (n=75) consisted of patients with complete MR, group 2 (n=43) — with incomplete MR. Serum levels of sST2 were measured using an enzyme immunoassay before MR and after the 12-month follow-up period.Results: the sST2 level in patients with single vessel coronary artery disease was 29.92 [22.43; 32.68] ng/ml and was 21% lower (p=0.002) than in patients with two or more coronary arteries (CA) — 37.87 [37.87; 51.82] ng/ml. During 12-month follow-up, the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events (CVE) in group 1 was 18.7%, in group 2–46.5% (p=0.001). After 12-month follow-up, the level of sST2 in group 1 decreased by 33.6% (p=0.0001) (from 30.51 [26.38; 37.06] to 20.27 [16.56; 27.11] ng/ml), while in group 2 there was only a tendency to decrease in the level of this biomarker, which was 6.9%. In group 2, after 12-month follow-up, there was a tendency to increase in the LV EF, which increased by only 2.4%, as well as a tendency to increase in the end-systolic dimension (ESD), which increased by 5.4%. In the group of patients with complete MR, the increase in the LV EF was significant (p=0.001) — by 13.6% (from 54.0 [42.0; 63.0] to 62.5 [49.0; 64.0]%), and the ESD decreased by 3%, the final ESV — by 4.6%.Conclusion: the sST2 level can be used as a diagnostic marker for assessing the severity of atherosclerotic CA lesion in patients with CHF. Performing complete MR in patients with stable CHD with CHF has a predominance over incomplete MR, leading to reversed LV remodeling, a decrease in sST2 levels and, as a result, the incidence of adverse CVE during the 12-month follow-up. KEYWORDS: coronary atherosclerosis, soluble ST2, myocardial revascularization, heart failure, prognosis, left ventricular remodeling.FOR CITATION: Grakova E.V., Kopieva K.V., Teplyakov A.T., Soldatenko M.V. Association between the severity of coronary artery disease and ST expression in patients with heart failure. Russian Medical Inquiry. 2020;4(7):399–405. DOI: 10.32364/2587-6821-2020-4-7-399-405.