Pentraxin-3 Predicts Long-Term Cardiac Events in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure

Abstract EN

The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term prognostic value of pentraxin-3 (PTX3) in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).

377 patients were prospectively followed up for 3 years to determine cardiac events including cardiac death or rehospitalization for worsening heart failure.

The plasma PTX3 levels were significantly higher in CHF patients than in healthy subjects ( p < 0.001 ), and they increased with advancing New York Heart Association (NYHA) Functional Classification ( p < 0.001 ).

Plasma PTX3 levels in CHF patients with cardiac events were significantly higher than in event-free patients ( p < 0.001 ).

We determined the normal upper limit of plasma PTX3 levels from the mean + 2 SD value of 64 control subjects (3.64 ng/mL).

A Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with increased PTX3 (≥3.64 ng/mL) were at a higher risk for cardiac events than those without increased PTX3 ( p < 0.01 ).

A multifactorial Cox proportional hazards model showed that increased PTX3 (≥3.64 ngImL) was an independent risk factor for cardiac events in CHF patients (hazard ratio (HR) = 4.224, p < 0.01 ; 95% CI: 1.130–15.783).

Plasma PTX3 levels are a long-term independent predictor of prognosis in patients with CHF.