GDF-15 can predict heart failure risk, especially in diabetes patients: Study

Written By : Medha Baranwal |Medically Reviewed By : Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli Published On 2022-06-09T11:04:40+05:30 | Updated On 9 Jun 2022 5:35 PM IST

USA: Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) provides complementary prognostic information on the risk of heart failure (HF), particularly among people with diabetes, says a recent study in Diabetologia. The researchers however add that it is not clear to which extent GDF-15 is associated with HF among people with and without diabetes.

Elevated circulating growth differentiation factor-15, a marker of cellular stress, is shown to be associated with both diabetes and heart failure. However, to what extent GDF-15 is associated with HF among individuals with and without diabetes is not clear.

Justin B. Echouffo-Tcheugui, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, and colleagues evaluated 10,570 participants free of HF at Visit 3 (1993–1995) of the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study.

The researchers used Cox regression for evaluating the joint associations of GDF-15 and diabetes with incident HF. Adjustment of models was sone for traditional cardiovascular risk factors.

Salient findings of the study include:

Among a total of 10,570 individuals (mean age of 60.0 years, 54% women, 27% black adults), elevated GDF-15 (≥75th percentile) was more common in people with diabetes compared with those without diabetes (32.8% vs 23.6%).
During 23 years of follow-up, there were 2429 incident HF events.
GDF-15 (in quartiles) was independently associated with HF among those with and without diabetes, with a stronger association among individuals with diabetes: HR for the highest vs lowest GDF-15 quartile (reference): 1.64 among those without diabetes and 1.72 among those with diabetes.
Individuals with diabetes and elevated GDF-15 had the highest risk of incident HF (HR 2.46).
After accounting for HF risk factors, GDF-15 provided additional prognostic information among participants with diabetes (ΔC statistic for model with vs model without GDF-15: +0.008) and among those without diabetes (+0.006).

"GDF-15 provided complementary prognostic information on the HF risk, especially among individuals with diabetes in a community-based sample of US adults," the authors concluded.

Reference:

Echouffo-Tcheugui, J.B., Daya, N., Ndumele, C.E. et al. Diabetes, GDF-15 and incident heart failure: the atherosclerosis risk in communities study. Diabetologia 65, 955–963 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-022-05678-6

DiabetologiaGrowth differentiation factor-15heart failuretype 2 diabetes

Source : Diabetologia

Medha Baranwal

MSc. Biotechnology

Medha Baranwal joined Medical Dialogues as an Editor in 2018 for Speciality Medical Dialogues. She covers several medical specialties including Cardiac Sciences, Dentistry, Diabetes and Endo, Diagnostics, ENT, Gastroenterology, Neurosciences, and Radiology. She has completed her Bachelors in Biomedical Sciences from DU and then pursued Masters in Biotechnology from Amity University. She has a working experience of 5 years in the field of medical research writing, scientific writing, content writing, and content management. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751

Dr. Kamal Kant Kohli

Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751