Prognostic value of pentraxin 3 in patients with chronic heart failure

Background A long pentraxin, PTX3, is produced by vascular cells or inflammatory cells and released into the circulation, possibly reflecting local inflammation in the cardiovascular system. Aim This study was designed to assess the clinical significance of plasma pentraxin 3 (PTX3) levels in chronic heart failure (CHF). Methods We measured plasma PTX3 levels in 37 patients with non-ischemic CHF (dilated cardiomyopathy) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) methods. Results The plasma PTX3 levels were higher in CHF patients than in healthy subjects (P = 0.001), and the CHF patients in the highest tertile of plasma PTX3 levels had more cardiac events than the patients in the lowest tertile (42% vs. 0%, P = 0.02). Multivariate regression analysis showed that PTX3 was the most significant predictor of cardiac events (hazard ratio 1.912 for each increase in PTX3 of 1 ng/ml, P = 0.019, 95% CI 1.114–3.282). In addition, PTX3 was strikingly expressed in human myocardial cells obtained from a biopsy specimen in a patient. Conclusion Plasma PTX3 levels might be a potentially useful biomarker to predict prognosis as well as to detect inflammatory status in patients with CHF.