BACKGROUND Cross-sectional studies have shown that B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and its N-terminal fragment (NT-proBNP) are predictive of cardiovascular death in haemodialysis (HD) patients. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that monitoring NT-proBNP measurements adds further prognostic information, i.e. predicts congestive heart failure (CHF) events. METHODS In a prospective...

BACKGROUND The aim of this investigation was to assess the incidence of elevated N-terminal fragment of pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and its relation to outcome defined as perioperative adverse cardiac events and all-cause mortality in high-risk patients undergoing non-elective surgery for hip fracture. METHODS A cohort of patients with hip fractures were extracted from a prospe...

The aim of this study was to determine how body mass index (BMI) influences the N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) level in patients with significant coronary artery disease (CAD). A total of 348 patients (61.5 +/- 9.2 years, male 67.5%) who had normal left ventricular systolic function were enrolled. All patients underwent percutaneous coronary intervention. We excluded pati...

Plasma concentrations of B-type na-triuretic peptide (BNP), a 32-amino acid peptide hormone secreted by the myocardium, increase in response to myocardial stretch or strain (1, 2). On secretion, proBNP, the storage form of BNP, is cleaved into the inactive N-terminal proBNP (NT-proBNP) and the endocrinologi-cally active BNP. In patients with heart failure, plasma BNP concentrations are related ...

OBJECTIVE N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is a marker of cardiac dysfunction and has been linked to various indices of large vessel disease. However, it remains unclear whether NT-proBNP also relates to microvascular damage. In a community-dwelling population, we studied the association between NT-proBNP and retinal microvascular damage. APPROACH AND RESULTS From the pop...

OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to research the prognostic utility of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), compare the utility of the Seattle Heart Failure Score (SHFS) with NT-proBNP, develop a risk-evaluation model based on NT-proBNP, assess the associations of NT-proBNP with patient characteristics, and screen for decisive factors of NT-proBNP in Chinese elderly with chr...

INTRODUCTION Several reports confirmed the prognostic value of the N-terminal fragment of B-type natriuretic peptide prohormone (NT-proBT) in various patient populations. Patients with medical indications for implantation of an artificial cardiac pacemaker are at high risk of cardiovascular events. There is limited data assessing the prognostic value of NT-proBNP in this group. OBJECTIVES The...

AIM We investigated the relationships between the autonomic nervous system, as assessed by heart rate variability (HRV) and levels of N-terminal Pro-B-type Natriuretic Peptide (Nt-proBNP) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI). METHODS AND RESULTS The mean of standard deviation of RR intervals (SDNN), the percentage of RR intervals with >50 ms variation (pNN50), square root of mean...

A prospective study was performed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels, measured simultaneously in serum and pleural fluid, in identifying pleural effusions due to heart failure. Pleural fluid and serum samples from all patients presenting for thoracentesis between April 2004 and May 2005 were simultaneously collected. The discrimin...

BACKGROUND Human pro-B-type natriuretic peptide is cleaved into the active B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and the inactive fragment NT-proBNP. It is unclear if, similar to BNP, NT-proBNP can be used as a marker of impaired left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction (EF). This study evaluated the analytical performance of both assays to detect LV systolic dysfunction. METHODS In 72 patients wit...