Usefulness of Biomarkers for Predicting Response to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) is an effective treatment strategy for heart failure. It significantly improves clinical symptoms and decreases mortality and long-term morbidity. However, some patients do not respond properly to this treatment. In this review, the role of different biomarkers in predicting response to CRT is discussed. Some biomarkers, including natriuretic peptides and inflammatory markers have promising results but further trials are needed for more evaluation. Methods: All the studies reporting the extent of biomarkers for predicting the response to cardiac resynchronization therapy were included in this study. For studies using the same database, the ones with a higher number of cases and more complete data were included. Conclusions were drawn from relevant randomized controlled clinical trials and meta-analyses about CRT implantation and its associated alterations in biomarker levels. Cardiac Resynchronization in Heart Failure (CARE-HF) study was the first and the largest study on patients with CRT with the longest followup, which showed a significant correlation between BNP levels and long-term CRT outcome. CRP has been demonstrated to be a mediator of inflammation and a marker indicating the presence of an inflammatory process. Conclusion: Natriuretic peptides, including BNP, markers of collagen synthesis like PINP, inflammatory markers, especially CRP, gal-3, and CT-apelin yield promising results in left ventricular remodeling and their relationship with response to CRT implantation is seen. Although more research is needed in this area as little information is available for baseline and preprocedural measurements, so that it would be easy to choose appropriate candidates for CRT implantation.