Objective To explore the relationship between the serum levels of microfibrillar associated protein 4 (MFAP4), fibrillin-1 (FBN1) and myocardial fibrosis in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).

Methods A total of 146 patients with CHF were selected as the observation group, and 146 healthy subjects were set as the control group at the same time. The serum levels of MFAP4 and FBN1 were detected by ELISA, and the levels of LN, PCⅢ and HA were detected by radioimmunoassay. The correlation between the serum levels of MFAP4, FBN1 and myocardial fibrosis indexes, and diagnostic value of MFAP4 and FBN1 in patients with CHF were analyzed.

Results The serum levels of MFAP4, FBN1, LN, PCⅢ and HA in the observation group were significantly higher than those in control group (P ＜ 0.01). The results of pearson correlation analysis showed that the serum levels of MFAP4 were significantly positively correlated with FBN1 (P ＜ 0.01), and both were significantly positively correlated with LN, PCⅢ and HA levels in the observation group (P ＜ 0.01). The results of logistic regression analysis showed that the MFAP4, FBN1 and LN, PCⅢ and HA were the independent risk factors of chronic heart failure (P ＜ 0.01). In the observation group, the serum levels of MFAP4 and FBN1 in patients with poor prognosis were significantly higher than those in patients with good prognosis (P ＜ 0.01). The results of ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC of MFAP4 and FBN1 in diagnosing myocardial fibrosis in patients with chronic heart failure were 0.814 and 0.831, respectively, and the AUC of MFAP4 and FBN1 in diagnosing myocardial fibrosis in patients with chronic heart failure was 0.881, which was better than that of single diagnosis (P ＜ 0.05).

Conclusions The expressions of MFAP4 and FBN1 are closely related to the myocardial fibrosis in patients with CHF. The high expression of both may promote the myocardial fibrosis in patients with CHF, and is a risk factor for myocardial fibrosis in CHF.