Biomarkers that can be used to develop a screening test to detect Peripartum Cardiomyopathy (PPCM) have been discovered by cardiologists.

Treatment was often delayed because it was difficult to know whether the women were experiencing normal symptoms of pregnancy or PPCM. The new discovery will allow doctors to administer a blood test to determine whether the woman has PPCM and begin effective treatment immediately. "There's an urgent need for biomarkers of PPCM since the condition can be hard to differentiate from the normal symptoms of pregnancy that include dyspnoea, oedema and palpitations", said Professor Karen Sliwa, a co-author from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. The authors hypothesized that since angiogenesis and relaxin-2 pathways are altered in PPCM the biomarkers ratio of these two pathways placental growth factors/sFlt-1 and relaxin-2 could be used to discriminate PPCM among peripartum women.
In the study, plasma was withdrawn from 77 PPCM patients, 75 healthy peripartum women, 25 breast feeding mothers, and 65 non-pregnant acute heart failure (HF) patients and tested for levels of cardiovascular (NT-proBNP), anti- (sFlt-1) and angiogenic [Placental (PlGF) or vascular endothelial (VEGF)] .
Results showed that compared to the other groups, PPCM patients had significantly higher levels of NT-proBNP, lower levels of plasma relaxin-2, and that the sFlt-1/PlGF ratio and sFlt-1/VEGF ratio were statistically lower.
"The next step will be to confirm our findings in a larger cohort and if they hold we could go on to develop a bed side test similar to NT-pro BNP in HF," said Professor Sliwa.
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