SAN DIEGO – Plasma levels of serotonin were significantly elevated in patients with decompensated systolic heart failure, compared with patients in the compensated state and with normal controls, according to a single-center study.
The finding suggests that that serotonin has an active role in the progression of heart failure, researchers led by Dr. Ahmed M. Selim reported Sept. 15 during a poster session at the annual meeting of the Heart Failure Society of America.
“More studies should be done to test the sensitivity, specificity, and prognostic value of serotonin as a marker for congestive heart failure and also to investigate the therapeutic benefits of the medications affecting this pathway,” wrote the researchers from the department of cardiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York.
They noted that, while the relationship between heart failure and the serotoninergic system has been established in previous research, fluctuations in serotonin levels during the course of the disease and its correlation with exacerbation of heart failure have never been tested.
Dr. Selim, a heart failure research fellow, and his associates collected plasma serotonin levels from 29 patients who were admitted with decompensated heart failure, 61 patients with stable heart failure, and 22 normal controls. They excluded patients receiving medications affecting serotonin receptors and those with pulmonary hypertension. All heart failure patients were on stable doses of heart failure medications and had left-ventricular ejections fractions of 40% or less, while normal controls had a mean ejection fraction of 59%.
Overall, the mean age of patients was 55 years, and 62% were male.
The researchers reported that the mean serotonin level in the control group was 2.4 ng/mL, compared with 4.1 ng/mL in the compensated group and 11.8 ng/mL in the decompensated group. This was independent of age, race, renal function, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension. “All results were highly significant,” the researchers wrote.
Dr. Selim and his associates stated that they had no relevant financial disclosures to make.