Association of miR-197-5p, a circulating biomarker for heart failure, with myocardial fibrosis and adverse cardiovascular events among patients with stage C or D heart failure

The aim of this study was to identify end-stage heart failure (HF)-specific circulating micro-RNAs (miRNA), and examine whether the selected miRNAs are correlated with myocardial fibrosis (MF) and are reflective of the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events in patients with stage C or D HF. Circulating miRNAs which were differentially expressed in end-stage HF patients and matched healthy controls were detected by microarray analysis and validated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Multivariate Cox regression analysis was performed to determine whether the selected circulating miRNAs could be prognostic factors in patients with end-stage HF.