Bioactive adrenomedullin for assessment of venous congestion in heart failure

Bioactive adrenomedullin (bio-ADM) is a vascular-derived peptide hormone that has emerged as a promising biomarker for assessment of congestion in decompensated heart failure (HF). We aimed to evaluate diagnostic and prognostic performance of bio-ADM for HF in comparison to amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), with decision thresholds derived from invasive haemodynamic and population-based studies.

Normal reference ranges for bio-ADM were derived from a community-based cohort (n = 5060). Correlations with haemodynamic data were explored in a cohort of HF patients undergoing right heart catheterization (n = 346). Mortality and decision cutoffs for bio-ADM was explored in a cohort of patients presenting in the ER with acute dyspnoea (n = 1534), including patients with decompensated HF (n = 570). The normal reference range was 8-39 pg/mL. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) for discrimination of elevated mean right atrial pressure (mRAP) and pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (PAWP) was 0.74 (95% CI = 0.67-0.79) and 0.70 (95% CI = 0.64-0.75), respectively, with optimal bio-ADM decision cutoff of 39 pg/mL, concordant with cubic spline analyses. NT-proBNP discriminated PAWP slightly better than mRAP (AUROC 0.73 [95% CI = 0.68-0.79] and 0.68 [95% CI = 0.61-0.75]). Bio-ADM correlated with (mRAP, r = 0.55) while NT-proBNP correlated with PAWP. Finally, a bio-ADM decision cutoff of 39 pg/mL associated with 30 and 90 day mortality and conferred a two-fold increased odds of HF diagnosis, independently from NT-proBNP.

Bio-ADM tracks with mRAP and associates with measures of systemic congestion and with mortality in decompensated HF independently from NT-proBNP. Our findings support utility of bio-ADM as a biomarker of systemic venous congestion in HF and nominate a decision threshold.