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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new biomarker may help identify people at greatest risk for heart failure.
According to researchers who discovered the marker known as resisten, the risk of developing heart failure rose 38 percent for every 10 nanograms per milliliter increase in blood levels. The investigators arent really sure how resistin ups the risk, but they note recent mouse studies linked the marker to a decline in the ability of heart muscles to contract.
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This is one of the strongest predictors of new-onset heart failure weve been able to find, and it holds up even when you control for other biomarkers and risk factors including high blood pressure and diabetes, study author Javed Butler, M.D., M.P.H., from Emory University School of Medicine, was quoted as saying.
Dr. Butler and his fellow researchers uncovered the marker by using data collected in a study conducted among 3,000 older people who were followed for seven years. The Health ABC study (Aging and Body Composition) was sponsored by the National Institute of Aging.
The investigators believe resistin may be most useful in identifying heart failure risk in people already considered at high risk for the condition.
Considering the increasing number of people who are obese or have diabetes, very many of them are going to be at some level of risk for heart failure later in life, said Dr. Butler. The value of a marker such as resistin may be in accurately identifying among this large population of at-risk individuals who is at the highest risk and then targeting interventions to those people.
SOURCE: Presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions conference, November 12, 2008
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