Association of Soluble Flt-1 with Heart Failure and Cardiac Morphology: The MESA Angiogenesis Study

Background: Soluble Fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 (sFlt-1) may inhibit angiogenesis. Higher levels of sFlt-1 are associated with worse prognosis in prevalent heart failure patients. The aim of this study was to better understand the role of sFlt-1 in heart failure pathogenesis by characterizing relationships between sFlt-1, cardiac morphology, and the composite outcome of incident heart failure or cardiovascular (CV) death in in a multiethnic cohort free of CV disease at baseline.

Methods: sFlt-1 was measured in 1,381 participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis Angiogenesis sub-study. Linear regression was used to estimate the association between sFlt-1 and cardiac morphology and Cox proportional hazard regression was used to estimate associations with incident heart failure or CV mortality.

Results: Over a median follow-up of 13.1 years, higher sFlt-1 levels were associated with incident heart failure or CV mortality independent from CV risk factors or NT-proBNP levels (HR 1.17, 95% CI 1.10-1.26, p < 0.001). Higher sFlt-1 levels were also associated with greater baseline left ventricular (LV) mass by cardiac MRI and increased loss of LV mass over the 10 years following the baseline exam (p-value 0.02 for each), but this association was no longer statistically significant after adjustment for baseline NT-proBNP (p = 0.11 and 0.10 respectively).

Conclusions: Baseline sFlt-1 levels are associated with incident heart failure and cardiovascular mortality independent of traditional CV risk factors or NT-proBNP. An association was also found with cardiac mass but was no longer significant after adjustment for NT-proBNP.