Potential Biological Markers of Atrial Fibrillation: A Chance to Prevent Cryptogenic Stroke

Table 3

Markers with hormonal activity.

Biomarker	Trials	Patients	Results	Potential DX efficiency in cryptogenic stroke
NT-pro BNP/BNP	1 prospective trial	72	↑ BNP levels in patients with AF compared to those without AF	++
	1 prospective trial	76	First-day BNP and LAA flow are helpful in differentiating cardioembolic stroke with AF from noncardioembolic stroke
	1 prospective trial	5445	NT-proBNP was an important predictor of incident AF, also after adjustment for covariates
	1 prospective trial	5518	NT-proBNP was significantly associated with incident AF and is a strong predictor of it
	1 prospective trial	3067	↑ BNP levels were associated with significant excess of incident AF and independent of traditional AF risk factors
	1 prospective trial	264	↑ ProBNP levels determined during the acute phase of stroke ↑ 5-fold the risk of developing AF in cryptogenic stroke patients in the following 2 years
	1 prospective trial	300	BNP level has a really strong negative predictive value in patients with stroke that can be related to AF
FGF-23	1 prospective trial	7748	FGF-23 concentrations were associated with higher unadjusted incidence rates of AF; ↑ FGF-23 concentration ↑ the risk of incident AF	+

+: potentially useful; ++: very promising; ↑: increased.