Atrial fibrillation is the most common arrhythmia and it progresses from short-lasting episode to long-standing and more frequent episodes. Its progression is associated with hospitality, death, dementia and impaired quality of life. It is important to know markers that could aid identify patients at the risk of progression and contribute to their management.
Laura Meems and colleagues studied three biomarkers in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation from the Identification of a risk profile to guide atrial fibrillation therapy (AF RISK) study.
The three studied biomarkers were N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP) and Troponin-T – and one non-traditional cardiovascular biomarker -growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15).
They found that patients with persistent AF, in comparison to those with paroxysmal AF, have higher blood concentration of these three biomarkers. These higher concentrations come along by higher number of comorbidities and more impaired echocardiographic parameters.
Interestingly, they showed higher levels of NTproBNP, but not Troponin-T and GDF-15, in persistent AF patients. They suggest that NTproBNP to be a better diagnostic biomarker than GDF15 and Troponin-T since the two latter are related to underlying conditions and not a specific AF phenotype.