Plasma Growth Differentiation Factor-15 in Children with Pulmonary Hypertension Associated with Congenital Heart Disease

Author Info

Amr Zoair Doaa El Amrousy Elham Zahran Hesham El-Serogy

Corresponding Author

Doaa El Amrousy
Pediatric Department, Faculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Egypt

A B S T R A C T

Objectives: We aimed to investigate the levels and diagnostic value of plasma growth differentiation factor15 (GDF-15) in children with pulmonary hypertension associated with congenital heart disease (PH-CHD). Methods: One hundred infants and children with CHD were included in the study; 50 of them with PHCHD and another 50 patients with CHD only. Fifty healthy infants and children of matched age and sex were included as a control group. GDF-15 levels as well as echocardiographic examination were done for all included subjects. Cardiac catheterization was performed for patients only. Results: GDF-15 levels were significantly higher in patients with PH-CHD (0.62±0.2) nmol/ml compared to those with CHD only patients (0.21±0.06) nmol/ml and to control group (0.13±0.02) nmol/ml with P<0.001. GDF-15 levels were significantly elevated according to the severity of PH; (0.4±0.1) nmol/ml in mild PH vs (0.7±0.3) nmol/ml in moderate PH vs (1.1±0.1) nmol/ml in severe PH. At a cutoff value of ≥ 0.313 nmol/ml, the sensitivity of GDF-15 as a diagnostic biomarker in PH-CHD children was 95%, the specificity was 100%, positive predictive value (PPV) was 100%, and negative predictive value (NPV) was 95.2 %. Conclusion: GDF-15 is elevated in infants and children with PH-CHD and can be a promising diagnostic biomarker in these patients.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Sat 18, Jan 2020
Accepted: Tue 04, Feb 2020
Published: Fri 07, Feb 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Doaa El Amrousy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.CDM.2019.01.04