Biomarker of rehospitalization after heart failure

A method for avoiding rehospitalization and treating a heart failure patient with a clinical diagnosis of heart failure, wherein said method comprises

• obtaining a biological sample selected from the group consisting of blood, plasma, and urine from said patient,
• measuring the concentration of IGFBP2 in said sample obtained from said patient with the clinical diagnosis of heart failure, and
• comparing the concentration of IGFBP2 measured in said measuring step to a threshold value derived from the concentration of IGFBP2 in blood samples taken from a group of patients wherein each of the patients in the group has one or more stages of heart failure selected from the group consisting of stage I, stage II, stage III and stage IV, according to the New York Heart Association (NYHA) heart failure classification system,
• rehospitalizing said patient with the clinical diagnosis of heart failure if the measured concentration exceeds the threshold value, and
• administering to said patient with the clinical diagnosis of heart failure at least one treatment selected from the group consisting of an effective amount of a beta-blocker, an effective amount of an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, an effective amount of an angiotensin receptor blocker, an effective amount of an aldosterone antagonist, an implantable cardiac defibrillator, a cardiac resynchronization therapy, an implantable left ventricular assistive device and a heart transplant,
• wherein the clinical diagnosis of heart failure is a diagnosis of heart failure with either reduced or preserved ejection fraction.