Cardiac Biomarkers in the Emergency Department: The Role of Soluble ST2 (sST2) in Acute Heart Failure and Acute Coronary Syndrome—There is Meat on the Bone

Abstract

Soluble ST2 (sST2) has recently emerged as a promising biomarker in the field of acute cardiovascular diseases. Several clinical studies have demonstrated a significant link between sST2 values and patients’ outcome. Further, it has been found that higher levels of sST2 are associated with an increased risk of adverse left ventricular remodeling. Therefore, sST2 could represent a useful tool that could help the risk stratification and diagnostic and therapeutic work-up of patients admitted to an emergency department. With this review, based on recent literature, we have built sST2-assisted flowcharts applicable to three very common clinical scenarios of the emergency department: Acute heart failure, type 1, and type 2 acute myocardial infarction. In particular, we combined sST2 levels together with clinical and instrumental evaluation in order to offer a practical tool for emergency medicine physicians.

Keywords

• sST2
• biomarkers
• stratification
• myocardial infarction
• acute heart failure
• emergency department