IMR Press / RCM / Volume 24 / Issue 8 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm2408219
Open Access Original Research
Prognostic Value of Urinary N-Acetyl-β-d-Glucosaminidase as a Marker of Tubular Damage in Patients with Heart Failure and Mitral Regurgitation
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1 Department of Cardiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 310009 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
*Correspondence: xieyao@zju.edu.cn (Yao Xie); xiangmx@zju.edu.cn (Meixiang Xiang)
These authors contributed equally.
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2023, 24(8), 219; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2408219
Submitted: 12 December 2022 | Revised: 16 February 2023 | Accepted: 1 March 2023 | Published: 31 July 2023
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: Mitral regurgitation (MR) has a high prevalence and aggravates hypoperfusion and hypoxia in heart failure (HF). Renal tubular epithelial cells are sensitive to hypoxia, and therefore tubulointerstitial damage is quite common in HF. However, the correlation between tubular dysfunction and MR has not been studied. The aim of this work was to evaluate the prognostic significance of urinary N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase (uNAG), a biomarker of renal tubular damage, in patients with HF and MR. Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of 390 patients (mean age 64 years; 65.6% male) with uNAG measurement on admission (expressed as urinary NAG/urinary creatinine) and at least 1 year of follow-up data. The pre-defined primary endpoint was the composite of all-cause mortality or rehospitalization for HF after discharge. Cox regression analysis, restricted cubic splines, and subgroup analysis were used to investigate the prognostic value of uNAG modeled as a categorical (quartiles) or continuous (per SD increase) variable. Results: A total of 153 (39.23%) patients reached the composite endpoint over a median follow-up time of 1.2 years. The uNAG level correlated with the severity of HF and with the incidence of adverse events. In a multivariable Cox regression model, each SD (13.80 U/gCr) of increased uNAG was associated with a 17% higher risk of death or HF rehospitalization (95% confidence interval, 2–33%, p = 0.022), and a 19% higher risk of HF rehospitalization (p = 0.027). Subgroup analysis revealed the associations between uNAG and poor prognosis were only significant in younger patients (65 years) and in patients without obvious cardiovascular comorbidities. Conclusions: uNAG levels at admission were associated with the risk of adverse outcomes in patients with HF and MR. Additional studies are needed to further investigate the heart-kidney interaction.

Keywords
N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase
renal tubular dysfunction
mitral regurgitation
heart failure
cardiorenal syndrome
Funding
2020C03118/Key Research and Development Project of Department of Science and Technology of Zhejiang Province
WKJZJ-1703/Provincial and Ministry Joint Major Projects of National Health Commission of China
Figures
Fig. 1.
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