Genetic factors for warfarin dose prediction.

stolic dysfunction either in asymptomatic or symptomatic patients, that is, stage B or C of the definition of heart failure, according to the classification of the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology task force for the diagnosis and management of chronic heart failure (3 ). One important finding of our metaanalysis (1 ) is represented by the heterogeneity of data published on the comparison of diagnostic accuracies of BNP and NT-proBNP, especially for studies concerning chronic heart failure. Evidently, the large variability of these data may be decreased if statistical analyses are performed separately for specific clinical conditions (e.g., systolic or diastolic dysfunction), as suggested by Mueller. However, this approach may not be feasible at this time, considering the small number of studies comparing the diagnostic accuracies of BNP and NT-proBNP. In conclusion, further studies are needed to evaluate differences in diagnostic accuracy of BNP and NT-proBNP assay in patients with heart failure.