Plasma asymmetric dimethylarginine and cardiovascular events in patients with acute decompensated heart failure

This prospective study investigated whether plasma asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) concentrations are related to cardiovascular events in patients with acute heart failure. It has been reported that increased plasma ADMA concentrations are associated with adverse cardiovascular outcome in chronic heart failure. In 118 patients with acute decompensated heart failure and impaired left ventricular function, ADMA and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) were assessed by high-performance liquid chromatography and by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. Venous blood was collected at admission and after 1 week, and clinical events were observed during follow-up. All patients (median age 73 years, 96 males) were followed up for a median of 10.7 months. A clinical endpoint (cardiac decompensation, major adverse cardiovascular event, or all-cause mortality) occurred in 66 patients. In 81 patients, changes (Δ) in ADMA or NT-proBNP between admission and a median of 7 days were available. ADMA, NT-proBNP at admission, and ΔADMA or ΔNT-proBNP were comparable in patients with and without a clinical endpoint. In contrast to ADMA, NT-proBNP concentrations above the median were associated with higher adjusted hazard ratio for occurrence of an endpoint (HR 2.1; 95% confidence interval 1.2-3.9; P = 0.013). An inverse relationship was observed between ΔNT-proBNP and endpoints before (P = 0.010) and after (P = 0.015) adjustment for confounders. In patients with acute heart failure, ADMA did not detect patients at future cardiovascular risk.