Predictive Value of Plasma Copeptin Level in Children with Acute Heart Failure

We investigated the ability of copeptin level to predict adverse outcome in pediatric heart failure (HF) and correlated copeptin level with various clinical and echocardiographic data. This cohort study was carried out on forty children with clinical picture of acute HF as the patient group and forty healthy children of matched age and sex as the control group. Echocardiographic examination and plasma copeptin level were performed for all included children at admission. Patients were followed up for 6 months for mortality or readmission. Plasma copeptin level was significantly higher in the patient group (16.2 +/- 5) pmol/L compared to the control group (4.1 +/- 2.3) pmol/L, P <0.001. Moreover, copeptin level was positively correlated with Ross classification, being the highest in patients with class IV (19.6 +/- 3.9) pmol/L compared to those with class III (15.2 +/- 4) pmol/L and class II (10.4 +/- 1.5) pmol/L. Copeptin levels were significantly higher in patients with bad prognosis (21.2 +/- 4.1) pmol/L compared to those with good prognosis (14.5 +/- 4.1) pmol/L, P <0.001. Copeptin level had a significant positive correlation with age, heart rate, respiratory rate, and ROSS classification. On the contrary, copeptin level had a significant negative correlation with left ventricular fraction shortening and diastolic function. Copeptin at cut-off value of >= 19.5 pmol/L yielded a sensitivity of 75% and a specificity of 93% to predict adverse outcome in children with HF. Plasma copeptin level has a good prognostic value to predict adverse outcome in pediatric heart failure. Moreover, copeptin correlate well with the severity of pediatric HF.