Progress Of Copeptin And Cardiovascular Diseases's Research

Arginine vasopressin (AVP) is one of the key hormones for maintaining cardiovascular homeostasis and regulating crystal osmotic pressure of plasma, it was also regarded as an alarm factor in some diseases. But it has so far escaped introduction into the routine clinical laboratory due to instability and technical difficulties. Copeptin, the C-terminal part of provasopressin (pro-AVP), is a glycosylated peptide. Copeptin is very stable at room temperature and is easy to measure. It probably plays an important role of pro-AVP processing, the maturing of AVP, and stabilizing the biological effect of AVP. Copeptin and AVP share the same source of chemical synthesis, so copeptin is released in an equimolar ratio to AVP. Measurement of copeptin can accurately reflect the AVP levels in the human body.During the past years, copeptin has been shown to be of important values in diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases. The combination of copeptin and troponin T allows a rapid rule out of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). The predictive value of copeptin for heart failure appeared to be even stronger than that of both BNP and NT-proBNP. Copeptin measurement can also helps discriminating from different types of hyponatremia. This review summarizes the recent progress in this field, and discusses the potential use of copeptin measurement in the context of therapeutic interventions with vasopressin receptor antagonists.