title: Circulating urotensin II levels in moderate to severe congestive heart failure: its relations with myocardial function and well established neurohormonal markers.
abstract: Urotensin II (UII) is a potent vasoactive cyclic peptide thought to play a role in myocardial hypertrophy and remodelling. We therefore determined UII plasma levels in congestive heart failure (CHF) patients and its relationship with the severity of the disease and well-established markers of left ventricular function. UII was significantly higher in CHF patients (n = 57) than in controls (n = 48) [geometric mean (pg/ml), 95% PI: 1.32 (0.67-2.59) versus 0.84 (0.31-1.61), p < 0.0001], was related to the functional class of the disease and correlated negatively with left ventricular ejection fraction (r = -0.316, P = 0.016). Furthermore, UII correlated significantly with Big-ET1 (r = 0.32, p = 0.03), BNP (r = 0.42, p = 0.005) but poorly with Nt-proANP (r = 0.28, p = 0.07). Our results suggest that UII could play a role in worsening the course of congestive heart failure and is associated with established markers of cardiovascular dysfunction.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Diabetes and Nutrition, Catholic University of Louvain, Tour Claude Bernard, 54 Avenue Hippocrate, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium. gruson_Damien@yahoo.fr
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gruson
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Rousseau
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: van Linden
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ketelslegers
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000097:blood*; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000473:pathology; D006728:Hormones / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology*; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents / Q000378:metabolism; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic / Q000737:chemistry; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D014579:Urotensins / Q000097:blood*; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D006728:Hormones; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents; D010456:Peptides, Cyclic; D014579:Urotensins; C029677:urotensin II