Investigation of a novel biomarker for heart failure (C4a-des-Arg)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessment of Complement 4a des Arg as a biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of patients with heart failure
IRAS ID
104362
Contact name
Punit Ramrakha
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Bucks Healthcare NHS Trust
Research summary
Heart failure (HF)is a multisystem disorder which results in inability of the heart to pump blood at a rate commensurate to the requirement of the body. The prevalence, hospitalization and mortality rate due to HF remains high despite the availability of modern therapy and multidisciplinary care. A number of markers for HF diagnosis and prognosis have been proposed, of which Brain Natriuretic peptide (BNP) and its inactive form NT-BNP have been extensively studied and have proved only partly helpful as a negative predictive test in acute HF and a potential guide to therapy. Therefore, the development of a new biomarker that can improve or add-on to the existing risk assessment, diagnosis or prognosis strategy would be very valuable in the clinical care of these patients.
We initially published the identification of plasma complement 4a (C4a) des Arg as a putative biomarker for idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (IPAH). The level of this protein was then found to be particularly high in those patients with HF. Plasma C4a des Arg has a higher specificity and sensitivity values (100% sensitivity and specificity at a cut off level of 1.0 mcg/mL) compared to plasma NT-BNP (75% specificity; 95% sensitivity at a cut off level of 0.34 ng/mL) in differentiating the HF patients from healthy controls.
The objective of this study is to identify the discriminatory potential of plasma C4a des Arg in stratifying HF patients of varying severity and to compare its performance to NT-BNP.
REC name
South Central - Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/SC/0187
Date of REC Opinion
10 Jun 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion