New research reveals that hematoma derived growth factor (HDGF) may be a good biomarker to predict disease severity in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) patients.
The findings were recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, in a the study “Hepatoma Derived Growth Factor Predicts Disease Severity and Survival in Pulmonary Artery Hypertension“.
“This has the potential to be a much more specific readout for the health of the lungs than what we currently measure using invasive cardiac catheterization,” said senior study author Dr Allen Everett, professor of pediatrics and director of the Pediatric Proteome Center at Johns Hopkins, in a press release. “It could really have value in making decisions about when to escalate therapy and when to ease it because at present, it’s difficult to determine whether someone’s disease is getting better or worse, especially in children.”
Everett and colleagues are developing the new, specific, and non-invasive test to measure the levels of HDGF in the blood, which could eventually help doctors decide on the best treatment for each PAH patient.
