Key result
Novel biomarkers sST2, galectin-3, and copeptin fail to discriminate pediatric myocarditis from noncardiac chest pain.
Why the study?
Does measurement of sST2, galectin-3, and copeptin discriminate clinically suspected myocarditis/myopericarditis from noncardiac causes in children aged 5–17 years presenting with nontraumatic chest pain?
Observational (n=88)
Single-blind
No
Does measurement of sST2, galectin-3, and copeptin discriminate clinically suspected myocarditis/myopericarditis from noncardiac causes in children aged 5–17 years presenting with nontraumatic chest pain?
In this prospective exploratory pediatric cohort, sST2, galectin-3, and copeptin failed to demonstrate diagnostic discrimination between clinically suspected myocarditis/myopericarditis and noncardiac chest pain, despite showing strong cross-spectrum separation from healthy controls.
These biomarkers lack diagnostic utility for suspected myocarditis in children; leaves open identification of effective markers.
We prospectively evaluated whether soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2), galectin-3, and copeptin discriminate pediatric-cardiologist-assessed clinically suspected myocarditis/myopericarditis from noncardiac causes of chest pain. The study included 66 children aged 5–17 years with nontraumatic chest pain and 22 contemporaneous clinically well controls. Seven symptomatic participants met the target clinical classification and 59 had noncardiac chest pain. Directional areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCs) were 0.47 (95% CI, 0.25–0.70) for sST2, 0.39 (0.20–0.61) for galectin-3, and 0.38 (0.18–0.60) for copeptin. In the secondary cross-spectrum comparison of all 66 chest-pain participants with 22 clinically well controls, AUCs were 0.98 (0.95-1.00), 0.98 (0.95-1.00), and 0.99 (0.97-1.00), respectively. Within-symptom discrimination was not demonstrated, but estimates were imprecise. The secondary patient-control separation represents a different clinical contrast and should not be interpreted as diagnostic accuracy for myocarditis/myopericarditis.
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Sahin et al. (2026) conducted an observational in Pediatric nontraumatic chest pain and clinically suspected myocarditis/myopericarditis (n=88). Serum sST2, galectin-3, and copeptin vs. Noncardiac chest pain (n=59) for primary analysis; clinically well controls (n=22) for secondary analysis was evaluated on Diagnostic discrimination (single-marker directional AUC) for clinically suspected myocarditis/myopericarditis versus noncardiac chest pain (AUC 0.47 for sST2; AUC 0.39 for galectin-3; AUC 0.38 for copeptin, 95% CI 0.25-0.70). Serum sST2, galectin-3, and copeptin did not discriminate clinically suspected myocarditis/myopericarditis from noncardiac chest pain in children, with AUCs of 0.47, 0.39, and 0.38, respectively.
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