Serial cardiac biomarker assessment in adults with congenital heart disease hospitalized for decompensated heart failure.

Background: Biomarkers are increasingly part of assessing and managing heart failure (HF) in adults with congenital heart disease (CHD).

Objectives: To understand the response of cardiac biomarkers with therapy for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) and the relationship to prognosis after discharge in adults with CHD.

Design: A prospective, observational cohort study with serial blood biomarker measurements.

Settings: Single-center study in the inpatient setting with outpatient follow-up.

Participants: Adults (≥18 years old) with CHD admitted with ADHF between August 1, 2019, and March 1, 2020.

Exposure: We measured body mass, Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ-12) score, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) at enrollment, discharge, and 1st clinic follow-up visit; soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2) was measured at the first two time points.

Measures: Univariate regression assessed the association between changes in weight, biomarkers, and changes in KCCQ-12 scores, between enrollment and discharge ( ) and between discharge and 1st clinical follow-up visit ( ). Wilcoxon rank-sum tests assessed the association between change in biomarkers, KCCQ-12 scores, and the composite outcome of cardiovascular death or rehospitalization for ADHF.

Results: A total of 26 patients were enrolled. The median age was 51.9 years [IQR: 38.8, 61.2], 13 (54.2%) were women, and median hospital stay was 6.5 days [IQR: 4.0, 15.0] with an associated weight loss of 2.8 kg [IQR -5.1, -1.7]. All three cardiac biomarkers decreased during hospitalization with diuresis while KCCQ-12 scores improved; a greater decrease in sST2 was associated with an improved KCCQ-12 symptom frequency (SF) subdomain score (p = 0.012), but otherwise, there was no significant relationship between biomarkers and KCCQ-12 change. Change in hsCRP and NT-proBNP after discharge was not associated with the composite outcome (n = 8, vs. n = 16 who did not experience the outcome; Δ hsCRP +5.1 vs. -1.0 mg/l, p = 0.061; NT-proBNP +785.0 vs. +130.0 pg/ml, p = 0.220).

Conclusions: Serial biomarker measurements respond to acute diuresis in adults with CHD hospitalized for ADHF. These results should motivate further research into the use of biomarkers to inform HF therapy in adults with CHD.