Diagnostic Utility of ANG in Coronary Heart Disease Complicating Chronic Heart Failure: A Cross-Sectional Study

Angiogenin (ANG) has been shown to be elevated in several cardiovascular diseases. To detect its levels and diagnostic capacity in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients complicating chronic heart failure (CHF), we performed this cross-sectional study and enrolled 616 CHD patients and 53 healthy controls. According to complicating CHF or not, the patients were divided into CHF group (n = 203) and CHD disease controls (n = 413), in which the CHF group was subdivided as heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) group or heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) group on the basis of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), or as different NYHA class group. Their plasma ANG levels were detected using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Plasma ANG was 342.8 (IQR [273.9,432.9]), 304.5 (IQR [254.0,370.5]), and 279.7 (IQR [214.4,344.0]) ng/mL in the CHF group, CHD disease controls, and healthy controls, respectively, significantly higher in the CHF group compared with the others. Furthermore, among CHF group, ANG is dramatically higher in the HFrEF patients compared with the HFpEF patients. As for the diagnostic capacity of ANG, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.71 (95% CI 0.63–0.78). We concluded that plasma ANG is elevated in CHD complicating CHF patients and may be a moderate discriminator of CHF from CHD or the healthy.