The change in plasma apelin level in heart failure (HF) patients is controversial. We investigated the change in plasma apelin level in HF patients versus control and non-HF patients. The plasma level of apelin was measured by ELISA and plasma level of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) by fluorescence immunoassay. We included 101 patients with HF, 32 patients without HF and 20 controls. The three groups did not differ in general and clinical characteristics. Plasma levels of apelin and BNP were both higher in HF patients than non-HF patients and controls. Plasma levels of apelin and BNP were not correlated. Plasma level of BNP was increased with increasing New York Heart Association grade and apelin level was decreased. Apelin level was lower in HF patients with NYHA grade IV than in controls and non-HF patients. Apelin level had 75% diagnostic value for HF, and BNP level had 96.8% diagnostic value. At a cutoff of 6.44 ng/mL apelin level, sensitivity was 69.3%, and specificity 97.1%. However, the diagnostic of apelin for NYHA II patients was higher than that of BNP (99.6% vs. 96.1%). These results suggested that apelin might be particularly useful in association with BNP in mild HF patients.

中文翻译：

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NYHA II级和III级但非IV级的apelin血浆水平升高。

心力衰竭（HF）患者血浆apelin水平的变化是有争议的。我们调查了HF患者与对照组和非HF患者血浆apelin水平的变化。通过ELISA测定血浆apelin的水平，通过荧光免疫测定法测定B型利钠肽（BNP）的血浆水平。我们包括101例HF患者，32例无HF患者和20例对照。这三组在一般和临床特征上没有差异。HF患者的血浆apelin和BNP均高于非HF患者和对照组。血浆apelin和BNP无关。随着纽约心脏协会评分的升高，血浆BNP水平升高，而apelin水平降低。NYHA IV级HF患者的Apelin水平低于对照组和非HF患者。Apelin水平对HF的诊断价值为75％，BNP水平对HF的诊断价值为96.8％。在apelin水平为6.44 ng / mL的临界值时，敏感性为69.3％，特异性为97.1％。但是，NYHA II患者对apelin的诊断率高于BNP（99.6％对96.1％）。这些结果表明，在轻度HF患者中，apelin可能与BNP联合使用特别有用。