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Biomedical subjects

Peter Kupchak

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Kupchak.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

Influence of imprecision on ROC curve analysis for cardiac markers.

BACKGROUND: There has been considerable debate regarding the impact of assay imprecision on the performance of cardiac biomarkers for diagnosis of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and risk stratification for future adverse cardiac events. METHODS: Using existing data from 2 published clinical trials, we used a resampling method to statistically introduce 5%, 10%, and 20% imprecision to results for B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and examined its impact on ROC curve analysis. RESULTS: Superimposition of artificial imprecision produced no significant difference in the area under the ROC curve observed for BNP for diagnosis of heart failure or for cTnI for 30-day risk stratification of patients with ACS. CONCLUSION: Assay imprecision does not appear to be a critical determinant in the interpretation of cardiac marker results for patients with heart disease.

Acute Disease↗

A direct comparison of the natriuretic peptides and their relationship to survival in chronic heart failure of a presumed non-ischaemic origin.

The natriuretic peptides have been validated as sensitive and specific markers of left ventricular dysfunction; brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), N-terminal atrial natriuretic peptide (NT-proANP) and N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) elevations have been associated with New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class I-IV heart failure. We directly compared the association of each of these markers with 1-year survival in 173 patients with chronic heart failure of a presumed nonischaemic origin entering the PRAISE-2 Trial, a clinical study which assessed the therapeutic effect of Amlodipine in patients with NYHA Class III and IV heart failure and a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <30%. BNP, NT-proBNP, and NT-proANP levels were all correlated with 1-year mortality by univariate Cox proportional hazards analyses. With respect to multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models containing variables deemed significant in univariate analyses, NT-proANP alone was identified as an independent predictor of 1-year mortality when log-transformed continuous covariates were utilized in the analysis. When the analysis was repeated using dichotomous covariates, NT-proANP remained the most significant predictor of 1-year mortality, followed by NT-proBNP, NYHA classification and BNP. We conclude that all three natriuretic peptides are significant predictors of short-term mortality in subjects with chronic congestive heart failure (CHF) of a presumed nonischaemic origin. Larger prospective studies are required to validate the clinical utility of NT-proANP as a discriminating marker of short-term survival, and to validate proposed cutoffs of approximately 2300 pmol/l for NT-proANP, 1500 pg/ml for NT-proBNP, and 50 pmol/l for BNP as prognostic indicators of adverse short-term outcome.

Aged↗

Mining biomarkers in human sera using proteomic tools.

One of the major difficulties in mining low abundance biomarkers from serum or plasma is due to the fact that a small number of proteins such as albumin, alpha2-macroglobulin, transferrin, and immunoglobulins, may represent as much as 80% of the total serum protein. The large quantity of these proteins makes it difficult to identify low abundance proteins in serum using traditional 2-dimensional electrophoresis. We recently used a combination of multidimensional liquid chromatography and gel electrophoresis coupled to matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-quadrupole-time of flight and Ion Trap liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to identify protein markers in sera of Alzheimer's disease (AD), insulin resistance/type-2 diabetes (IR/D2), and congestive heart failure (CHF) patients. We identified 8 proteins that exhibit higher levels in control sera and 36 proteins that exhibit higher levels in disease sera. For example, haptoglobin and hemoglobin are elevated in sera of AD, IR/D2, and CHF patients. The levels of several other proteins including fibrinogen and its fragments, alpha 2-macroglobulin, transthyretin, pro-platelet basic protein, protease inhibitors clade A and C, as well as proteins involved in the classical complement pathway such as complement C3, C4, and C1 inhibitor, were found to differ between IR/D2 and control sera. The sera levels of proteins, such as the 10 kDa subunit of vitronectin, alpha 1-acid glycoprotein, apolipoprotein B100, fragment of factor H, and histidine-rich glycoprotein were observed to be different between AD and controls. The differences observed in these biomarker candidates were confirmed by Western blot and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The biological meaning of the proteomic changes in the disease states and the potential use of these changes as diagnostic tools or for therapeutic intervention will be discussed.

Biomarkers↗

Processing of serum proteins underlies the mass spectral fingerprinting of myocardial infarction.

The MALDI-TOF spectra of peptides from the sera of normal and myocardial infarction patients produced patterns that provided an accurate diagnostic of MI. In myocardial infarction, the spectral pattern originated from the cleavage of complement C3 alpha chain to release the C3f peptide and cleavage of fibrinogen to release peptide A. The fibrinogen peptide A and complement C3f peptide were in turn progressively truncated by aminopeptidases to produce two families of fragments that formed the characteristic spectral pattern of MI. Time course and inhibitor studies demonstrated that the peptide patterns in the serum reflect the balance of disease-specific-protease and aminopeptidase activity ex vivo.

Amino Acid Sequence↗