Circulating MicroRNA-210 Concentrations in Patients with Acute Heart Failure: Data from the Akershus Cardiac Examination 2 Study

Background MicroRNA (miR)-210 expression is induced by acute and chronic hypoxia and provides prognostic information in patients with aortic stenosis and acute coronary syndrome. We hypothesized that circulating miR-210 concentrations could provide diagnostic and prognostic information in patients with acute heart failure (HF). Methods We measured miR-210 concentrations in serum samples on admission from 314 patients hospitalized for acute dyspnea and 9 healthy control subjects. The diagnostic and prognostic properties of miR-210 were tested in patients after adjudication of all diagnoses and with median follow-up of 464 days. Results All patients and control subjects had miR-210 concentrations within the range of detection, and the analytical variation was low as the coefficient of variation of synthetic spike-in RNA was 4%. Circulating miR-210 concentrations were increased in patients with HF compared to healthy control subjects, but miR-210 concentrations did not separate patients with acute HF (n = 143) from patients with non-HF-related dyspnea (n = 171): the area under the curve was 0.50 (95% CI 0.43–0.57). Circulating miR-210 concentrations were associated with mortality (n = 114) after adjustment for clinical risk factors (hazard ratio 1.65 [95% CI 1.03–2.62] per unit miR-210 increase), but this association was attenuated and not significant after adjustment for established cardiac protein biomarkers. Conclusions Circulating miR-210 concentrations are associated with mortality, but do not add to established protein biomarkers for diagnosis or prognosis in patients with acute dyspnea