Do multiple novel biomarkers improve prognostic value for mortality in patients with heart failure compared to established predictors?
While individual novel biomarkers add little prognostic value, the presence of three or more elevated dichotomized biomarkers identifies heart failure patients at the highest risk of mortality.
The novel biomarkers included in this study added little, if any, incremental prognostic value on their own to a model containing established predictors of mortality. However, following dichotomization, five of the novel biomarkers provided incremental prognostic value. There was a clear gradient in the risk of death with increasing numbers of elevated novel biomarkers, with the presence of at least three identifying patients at greatest risk of mortality.
Jackson et al. (2016) studied this question.