Diagnostic value of serum soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 in patients with heart failure in different types of heart diseases

Objective To observe the changes of soluble growth stimulation expression gene 2 (sST2) level in patients with heart failure in different types of heart diseases, and analyze the diagnostic value of sST2 in heart failure. Methods A total of 74 patients with heart failure admitted to the Department of Rehabilitation, Hefei Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Sciences, from January 2021 to May 2022 were selected, including 24 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD group), 25 patients with atrial fibrillation (AF group) and 25 patients with hypertensive heart disease (HHD group). Additional 26 healthy individuals during the same period were selected as the control group. Serum sST2 levels were measured and compared between the observation groups and the control group. The differences in serum sST2 levels in patients with different severities of heart failure were analyzed, and the diagnostic efficacy of sST2 and N-terminal pro B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) was compared. Results The serum sST2 levels in the CAD group, AF group, and HHD group were (50.02±19.43) ng/mL, (57.26±19.07) ng/mL, and (44.79±16.50) ng/mL, respectively, which were significantly higher than that in the control group ［(20.55±4.33) ng/mL, P＜0.01］. As the heart failure grade increased, the serum sST2 levels also increased, with statistical significance (F=15.097, P＜0.01). The specificity of serum sST2 combined with NT-proBNP in diagnosing heart failure of different severities was 83.33%, the sensitivity was 92.00%, and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.95. Conclusion The level of serum sST2 is an important indicator of heart failure caused by different types of heart disease, and combined with NT-proBNP is effective in the diagnosis of this disease.