Soluble ST2 biomarker analysis for fibrosis development in atrial fibrillation. A case control study

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common and clinically relevant supra-ventricular arrhythmia which represents an independent risk factor for development of heart failure as well as for ischemic stroke. Clinical management of this pathology can be still challenging in many patients, in particular the older ones and/or those which present comorbidity. The interest in biomarkers for diagnosis and manage- ment of the AF becomes more evident in recent years. We studied the possible role of the soluble sST2 as biomarker to assess the brosis development of patients with rst diagnosed or permanent AF. The serum concentrations of these biomarkers have been measured in a group of 58 patients (mean age 83.6 ± 6.0 years) and in a control set of 40 individuals. The mean serum concentration of sST2 is 26.1 (22.7-30.5) ng/mL in the AF group, while in the control is 17.3 (15.7- 18.9) ng/mL (p<0.05). Remarkable differences have been obtained for the two subsets of patients with rst diagnosed and permanent AF (sST2: (23 (21.2-24) ng/mL vs 30.5 (28.6-32) ng/mL). The analysis has been completed with a trans thoracic echocardiographic exam to evaluate the left atrium size and the left ventricular ejection fraction. The results have been discussed to enhance the correlation between the instrumental and laboratory results. The present casecontrol study suggests a possible clinical valuable role of the sST2 to evaluate the brosis level in the brillating patients as the cohort here studied.