GDF15 and atherosclerosis: GDF-15 has been reported to add prognostic information in several CV disorders including myocardial infarction (MI), atherosclerosis, aortic stenosis, pulmonary hypertension and ischemic stroke [6, 24] as well as in HFrEF [12–16, 25] and more recently also in HF with preserved EF (HFpEF) [13, 15, 25].