PURPOSE: Heart failure is a preventable and treatable disease. Early diagnosis is important to reduce hospitalization and mortality. Novel biomarkers, such asMR-proADM, might lead to earlier diagnosis of left ventricular dysfunction and thus leadto better clinical outcomes. This study aims to evaluate the association between MR-proADM and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) assessed by echocardiography.

METHODS: Patients undergoing routine echocardiography were prospectively enrolled in the present monocentric study. Patients with right ventricular dysfunction (TAPSE <17 mm) were excluded. Blood samples for measurements of MR-proADM and NT-proBNP were collected at the time of echocardiographic examination. Subgroups based on LVEF grades were defined (0: left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) > 60 %(n=37); I: LVEF > 55 -  ≤ 60% (n=40), II: LVEF > 45 - ≤ 55 % (n=32), III: LVEF >35- ≤ 45 % (n=22), IV: LVEF ≤ 35 % (n=15).

RESULTS: 146 patients were included. Regarding the distribution of biomarkers, levels of MR-proADM as well as NT-proBNP increased significantly according to decreasing LVEF (MR-proADM: p=0.002, NT-proBNP: p=0.0001). Furthermore MR-proADM correlated significantly with LVEF (p=0.0001). Both, MR-proADM and NT-proBNP were able to discriminate patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction LVEF IV (MR-proADM: AUC=0.739, p=0.003; NT-proBNP: AUC=0.84, p=0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that MR-proADM is able to adequately reflect LVEFassessed by echocardiography and thus might be a useful marker for early diagnosis of leftventricular systolic dysfunction.