Application value of serum sST2 in diagnosis and prognosis of heart failure

Abstract

The incidence of heart failure (HF) increases significantly as people age. HF remains a major concern in public health. Although remarkable achievements have been made to treat heart failure in recent years, the survival rate of patients is still very low and the prognosis is poor. The mortality rate within 5 years after the diagnosis of heart failure is up to 50%. If we can quickly and effectively diagnose heart failure and reasonably stratify according to the risk, it will provide a solid foundation for clinicians to formulate treatment plans. Biomarkers play an important role in the diagnosis, curative effect evaluation and prognosis of heart failure. Heart failure is a complex disease in which various pathophysiological processes are involved over time. When heart failure occurs, neuroendocrine system is activated. With the increase of blood volume and ventricular wall pressure, ventricular myocytes secrete NT-proBNP/BNP. Therefore, NT-proBNP/BNP can be used as a biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis of heart failure. However, NT-proBNP/BNP in plasma is easily affected by many factors such as age, sex, body type, left ventricular hypertrophy, tachycardia, right ventricular overload, hypoxemia, and kidney function. As a novel marker of heart failure, sST2 has attracted much attention in recent years. It can reflect the degree of myocardial fibrosis and predict whether ventricular remodeling will occur. It is worth noting that sST2 is not affected by age, gender and renal function and other factors. Also, with low reference change values and individuality index values, sST2 seems to be the best candidate for monitoring and guided therapy. In short, sST2 is one of the ideal indicators to evaluate heart failure. This review summarizes the research progress of sST2 in the diagnosis and prognosis of heart failure in recent years, and provides perspectives for its future development.