Inter- Not Intraindividual Differences in sTWEAK Levels Predict Functional Deterioration and Mortality in Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy
Figure 3
Interindividual differences in sTWEAK represent a risk factor for outcome in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. To analyze the usefulness of sTWEAK as a biomarker in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, we performed at least three serial sTWEAK measurements within all patients of our cohort. Interestingly, sTWEAK not only differed significantly between those patients with a progressive course of the disease and those with a stable course, but surprisingly remained very stable within individual patients with progressive deterioration, indicating that sTWEAK might represent a risk factor for disease progression rather than a biomarker for disease monitoring (; mean ± SEM; ).
