OPG/TRAIL ratio as a predictive biomarker of mortality in patients with type A acute aortic dissection

Following hospital discharge, patients with type A acute aortic dissection (TA-AAD) may present an increase in mortality risk. However, little is known about specific biomarkers associated with post-discharge survival, and there is a paucity of prognostic markers associated with TA-AAD. Here, we identify nine candidate proteins specific for patietns with TA-AAD in a cross-sectional dataset by unbiased protein screening and in-depth bioinformatic analyses. In addition, we explore their association with short-term and long-term mortality in a derivation cohort of patients with TA-AAD, including an internal (n = 300) and external (n = 236) dataset. An elevated osteoprotegerin (OPG)/tumour necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) ratio was the strongest predictor of overall, 30-day, post-30-day mortality in both datasets and was confirmed to be a strong predictor of mortality in an independent validation cohort (n = 400). Based on OPG/TRAIL ratio-guided risk stratification, patients at high risk (>33) had a higher 1-year mortality (55.6% vs. 4.3%; 68.2% vs. 2.6%) than patients at low risk (<4) in both cohorts. In Conclusion, we show that an elevated OPG/TRAIL ratio is associated with a significant increase in short-term and long-term mortality in patients with TA-AAD.