Ursula-Henrike Wienhues-Thelen

The fibroblast growth factor-23 and Vitamin D emerge as nontraditional risk factors and may affect cardiovascular risk

Fibroblast growth factor‐23 (FGF‐23) and vitamin D are hormones involved in phosphate homoeostasis. They also directly influence cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. We examined whether the relationships between levels of vitamin D or FGF‐23, cardiac phenotype and outcome were independent of established cardiac biomarkers in a large cohort of community‐dwelling elderly subjects.

Predictive value of endostatin in chronic heart failure patients with poor kidney function.

Objectives: Increased circulating endostatin levels have been demonstrated in progressive cardiovascular (CV) and renal disorders. We investigated the predictive value of endostatin in patients with chronic heart failure (HF) and the association between endostatin and renal function. Methods: The interaction between serum endostatin, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and predefined endpoints, including the primary endpoint (CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke; n = 397), all-cause mortality (n = 410), CV death (n = 335) or the coronary endpoint (n = 317), was evaluated in 1,390 patients >60 years of age with ischemic systolic HF in the Controlled Rosuvastatin Multinational Trial in HF (CORONA) population, who were randomly assigned to 10 mg rosuvastatin or placebo. Results: In the population as a whole, endostatin added no predictive information after full multivariable adjustment including eGFR and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide. Serum endostatin was strongly correlated with eGFR (r = 0.59, p < 0.001). After full multivariable adjustment, an association between high serum endostatin and increased risk of all-cause mortality and decreased risk of the primary and coronary endpoints was seen in HF patients with impaired and preserved renal function, respectively. Conclusions: Endostatin added no predictive information regarding the adverse outcome in patients with chronic systolic HF of ischemic etiology. An increased risk of all-cause mortality was seen in patients with decreased renal function. i 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel