Scientists at the Centre for Applied Medical Research (CIMA) and the Clínica Universidad de Navarra, in Pamplona, and the Biodonostia Health Research Institute (CIB) and the Hospital Universitario Donostia (HUD), in San Sebastián, have discovered a diagnostic tool to evaluate fibrosis (excess fibrous tissue) of the myocardium caused by arterial hypertension. This technique, based on blood-based biomarkers, will allow for better diagnosis of heart failure and personalized treatment for each patient. 

The results of the study have been published in the "Journal of the American College of Cardiology" (JACC), whose editor is the Spanish cardiologist Valentín Fuster. The publisher acknowledges the scientific development of the research group and evaluates the importance of this new method.

Up to now, fibrosis was diagnosed only by means of a heart biopsy, a risky method requiring a cardiac puncture. The new method uses a non-invasive biochemical technique, which measures the characteristics of the collagen fibers which accumulate in the blood and cause myocardial fibrosis. "Apart from being a less invasive test, this study shows that both the quantity and the quality of the myocardial fibrosis effect the evolution and prognosis of the patients with heart failure caused by hypertension", explained Dr. Javier Díez, director of the Cardiovascular Disease Program at CIMA, and co-director of the study together with Dr. Ramón Querejeta, from the CIB and the HUD.

Funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the European Commission, this collaborative translational research between the basic and clinical research has been carried out over nine years on 241 patients with heart failure caused by arterial hypertension, with a mean age of 68.5 years at the beginning of the study.

According to the research directors, "These new biomarkers permit cheap and simple identification of the myocardial fibrosis and the classification of the patients in accordance with their risk in the future and possible hospitalization, which will allow the physicians to personalize and individualize the treatment of each patient".

 

Effects of arterial hypertension

In Spain there are over 6 million people suffering from hypertension. When hypertension damages the cardiac muscle, not only does the heart become enlarged, but it also modifies its structure and re-modifies and alters its normal function, thus provoking heart failure.

"Heart failure is the primary cause of hospitalization in Spain and is of great importance from the healthcare and economic perspective, and even more so for the patients' quality of life. The conventional treatment is administered generically to all patients who have been diagnosed as having this disease. With the data from this biomarker, complementary therapies will be added and improve the prognosis of the patient", said Dr. Díez and Dr. Querejeta.