Increased soluble ST2 predicts long-term mortality in patients with stable coronary artery disease: results from the Ludwigshafen risk and cardiovascular health study.

BACKGROUND: Soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2) has emerged as a strong prognostic biomarker in patients with heart failure and myocardial infarction. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term prognostic value of sST2 in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD).

METHODS: sST2 plasma concentrations were measured in 1345 patients with stable CAD referred for coronary angiography at a single tertiary care center. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality.

RESULTS: During a median follow-up time of 9.8 years, 477 (36%) patients died. The median sST2 plasma concentration at baseline was significantly higher among decedents than survivors (21.4 vs 18.5 ng/mL; P < 0.001). In multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, sST2 was an independent predictor of all-cause mortality (risk ratio 1.16 per 1-SD increase in log-transformed values; 95% CI 1.05-1.29; P = 0.004). In the same multivariate analysis, amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) were also independent predictors, whereas galectin-3 was not. Patients with sST2 in the highest quartile (>24.6 ng/mL) displayed a 2-fold increased risk of death in univariate analysis, which was attenuated but remained significant in a fully adjusted model (risk ratio 1.39; 95% CI 1.10-1.76; P = 0.006). Further analysis showed that the prognostic impact of sST2 was additive to NT-proBNP and hs-cTnT. Using a multibiomarker approach combining these 3 complementary makers, we demonstrated that patients with all 3 biomarkers in the highest quartiles had the poorest outcome.

CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort of patients with stable CAD, increased sST2 was an independent predictor of long-term all-cause mortality and provided complementary prognostic information to hs-cTnT and NT-proBNP.