High levels of platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule 1 (PECAM-1) may help predict the response to treprostinil therapy in pulmonary hypertension patients, new research shows.

A post hoc biomarker analysis of the 16-week, randomized controlled FREEDOM-C2 study of oral treprostinil in patients receiving background treatment with an endothelial receptor antagonist and/or phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitor results were published in The American Journal of Cardiology.

In the current analysis, investigators sought to identify novel biomarkers that could predict treatment response and risk in patients with PAH. They performed their analysis in the subgroup of patients with a baseline biomarker measurement, which was available in 173 of the total 310 individuals enrolled in the FREEDOM-C2 trial (ClinicialTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00887978). Overall, 61.8% (107 of 173) of those evaluated had idiopathic or familial PAH, and 35.3% (61 of 173) had connective tissue disease (CTD)-associated PAH (CTD-PAH). Overall, the majority of participants had World Health Organization (WHO) class III symptoms (75.6%; 130 of 172 individuals).

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