BACKGROUND Elevated natriuretic peptide levels in asymptomatic individuals without heart failure are associated with increased risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes and may reflect subclinical cardiac dysfunction. METHODS In a sample of 313 asymptomatic individuals (51% women, mean age 61 years) with hypertension and diastolic dysfunction, we examined the association of plasma N-terminal pr...

AIMS To compare the performance of the natriuretic peptides (NPs) NT-proBNP and MR-proANP for the diagnosis of acute heart failure (AHF) in subsets of conditions potentially confounding the interpretation of NPs. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied 312 patients, presenting to the emergency department with new onset of dyspnoea or worsening of chronic dyspnoea within the last 2 weeks. Performance o...

1. Eindhoven JA, van den Bosch AE, Jansen PR, Boersma E, RoosHesselink JW. The usefulness of brain natriuretic peptide in complex congenital heart disease: a systematic review. J Am Coll Cardiol 2012;60: 2140–9. 2. Johns MC, Stephenson C. Amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide testing in neonatal and pediatric patients. Am J Cardiol 2008;101:76–81. 3. Clerico A, Emdin M. Diagnostic accur...

Acute decompensated heart failure is one of the most important causes of hospitalisation worldwide. Natriuretic peptides have shown their usefulness in the diagnosis and management of heart failure. Their variations during hospitalisation also appear useful to predict outcomes. In particular, data from the literature demonstrate that reduction from admission to discharge of brain natriuretic pe...

OBJECTIVE Patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome suffer from profound cardiac and pulmonary derangement, including right ventricular strain and noncardiogenic pulmonary edema, which may potentially alter concentrations of cardiac natriuretic peptides. We sought to determine whether N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels are elevated in acute respiratory distress s...

Since the initial observation that elevated cardiac troponin T levels are closely associated with mortality in acute pulmonary embolism,1 several reports have confirmed the prognostic role of cardiac troponins in this setting.2,3 More recently, yet another group of biomarkers, the natriuretic peptides B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), em...

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of B-type natriuretic peptides (BNPs) in acute high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). The study enrolled 46 subjects from lowland Han, including 33 individuals who had acutely ascended to a high altitude (21 individuals with HAPE as the case group and 12 individuals without HAPE as the high-altitude control group) and 13 healthy normal r...

OBJECTIVES Different diagnostic algorithms for non-acute heart failure (HF) exist. Our aim was to compare the ability of these algorithms to identify HF in symptomatic patients aged 80 years and older and identify those patients at highest risk for mortality. DESIGN Diagnostic accuracy and validation study. SETTING General practice, Belgium. PARTICIPANTS 365 patients with HF symptoms aged...

The aim of this study was to determine whether there are differences in echocardiographic findings or in the level of a biochemical marker (i.e. N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide [NT-proBNP]) between controls and type-2 diabetic patients with or without ischemic heart disease. Echocardiography was used to assess left ventricular function and morphology. In addition, the plasma NT-proBNP c...