Researchers from the National Institutes of Health developed and validated a protein risk score to stratify mortality risk in persons with heart failure.
Heart failure is a complex clinical syndrome with high mortality rates. (Creative Commons)
Scientists have developed a new protein risk score to predict the chances of death for persons with heart failure. Heart failure is a complex clinical syndrome with high mortality rates, the researchers said.
Current risk stratification approaches that capture the biological complexity of heart failure and show clinical utility are limited, the researchers stated.
High-throughput proteomics could improve risk prediction, but its use in clinical practice to guide the management of patients with heart failure depends on validation and evidence of clinical benefit.
The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health developed and validated a protein risk score to stratify mortality risk in persons with heart failure using a community-based cohort of 7,289 plasma proteins in 1,351 patients with heart failure.
In the development cohort, 38 unique proteins were selected for the protein risk score. The protein risk score demonstrated good calibration, reclassified mortality risk, particularly at the extremes of the risk distribution, and showed greater clinical utility compared with the clinical model.
According to the researchers, these findings foreshadow the clinical utility of large-scale proteomic assays for precision risk prediction in heart failure.
The team noted that the participants were predominantly of European ancestry, potentially limiting the generalisability of the findings to different patient populations.
Further studies are needed to prospectively evaluate the score’s performance in diverse populations and determine risk thresholds for interventions, they added.
The researchers said that this tool may help clinicians select patients with advanced heart failure, particularly high risk for adverse outcomes, that should be considered for mechanical circulatory support or transplantation.
(With PTI inputs)
