Potential resilience to common confounders: Given that NT-proBNP is depressed in obesity and altered by CKD/AF, a structurally anchored marker like Cav-3 could retain signal where peptides are noisier—an inference that warrants direct testing in enriched obese/CKD/AF subgroups (13, 14). This evidence concerns the gene CAV3 and atrial fibrillation.