Distribution of circulating cardiac biomarkers in healthy children: from birth through adulthood

• Published in: Biomarkers in medicine Vol. 10; no. 4; pp. 357 - 365
• Main Authors: Caselli, Chiara, Ragusa, Rosetta, Prontera, Concetta, Cabiati, Manuela, Cantinotti, Massimiliano, Federico, Giovanni, Del Ry, Silvia, Trivella, Maria Giovanna, Clerico, Aldo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Future Medicine Ltd 01.04.2016
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Adult; Adults; Age; Apgar score; Architects; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - blood; Blood; Cardiovascular disease; Child; Child, Preschool; Children; Female; Galectin 3 - blood; Galectin 3 - standards; Galectin-3; Healthy Volunteers; Heart; Heart failure; hs cardiac Troponin I; Humans; Immunoassay; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Infants; Interleukin-1 Receptor-Like 1 Protein - blood; Laboratories; Male; Natriuretic Peptide, Brain - blood; Natriuretic Peptide, Brain - standards; Neonates; Newborn babies; NT-pro BNP; pediatric population; Pediatrics; Peptide Fragments - blood; Peptide Fragments - standards; Plasma; Reference Values; sST2; Statistical analysis; Teenagers; Troponin I - blood; Troponin I - standards; Young Adult; United States > US; Italy; pediatric population; Galectin-3; sST2; hs cardiac Troponin I; NT-pro BNP
• ISSN: 1752-0363; 1752-0371
• DOI: 10.2217/bmm-2015-0044

While circulating biomarkers are critical tools for cardiovascular adult care, their relevance in childhood is unknown. We evaluated the behavior of plasma concentrations of clinically relevant cardiac biomarkers (NT-proBNP, hs-cTnI, sST2, Galectin-3) in 106 healthy children. Subjects were divided into age subgroups: 24 newborns (0-30 days), 26 infants (1-12 months), 30 children (1-12 years) and 26 adolescents (13-18 years). Healthy adults were used as control. NT-proBNP (newborns: 504.3 [211.07-942.7] ng/L, median [25-75 percentiles]; infants: 200.64 [76.88-306.73]; children: 97.27 [49.24-271.80]; adolescents: 24.35 [13.14-58.83]; p < 0.001) and hs-cTnI (newborns: 9.3 [3.3-93.8] ng/L; infants: 13.8 [4.82-72.52]; children: 11.45 [4.0-48.10]; adolescents: 2.6[2.07-3.90]; p < 0.001) were highest in the first month of life, showing a decline in the next years. sST2 and Galectin-3 showed no differences. Changes in hs-cTnI and NT-proBNP suggest the design of age- and sex-based reference intervals that will have to be explored in a larger population.