Dynamics of Growth Differentiation Factor 15 in Acute Heart Failure

Aims: Risk stratification in acute heart failure (HF) patients can help to decide therapies and time for discharge. The potential of growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF-15) in HF has been previously shown. We aimed to study the importance of GDF-15-level variations in acute HF patients.

Methods And Results: We retrospectively evaluated a cohort of patients hospitalized due to acute HF. GDF-15 was measured both at admission and on the discharge day. Patients were followed-up during a 3 year period. The endpoint under analysis was all-cause mortality. GDF-15 variation is equal to [(admission GDF-15 - discharge GDF-15)∕admission GDF-15] × 100. Variation was categorized in levels of increase or decrease of GDF-15. Patients were cross-classified according to admission and discharge GDF-15 cut-off points. A Cox regression analysis was used to assess the prognostic impact of GDF-15 variation and the impact of both admission and discharge GDF-15 according to the cross-classification. We studied a group of 249 patients with high co-morbidity burden. Eighty-one patients died at 1 year and 147 within 3 years. There was a modest decrease in GDF-15 during hospitalization from a median value of 4087 to 3671 ng/mL (P = 0.02). No association existed between GDF-15 variation and mortality. In multivariate analysis, patients with admission GDF-15 ≥ 3500 ng/mL and discharge GDF-15 ≥ 3000 ng/mL had a significantly higher 1 year death risk when compared with the remaining-hazard ratio = 2.59 (95% confidence interval: 1.41-4.76)-and a 3 year 1.76 (95% confidence interval: 1.08-2.87) higher death risk compared with those with both values below the cut-off.

Conclusions: Growth differentiation factor 15 decreased during an acute HF hospitalization, but its variation had no prognostic implications. The knowledge of both admission and discharge GDF-15 added meaningful information to patients' risk stratification.