Relationship Between Obesity and N-Terminal Brain Natriuretic Peptide Level as a Prognostic Value After Acute Myocardial Infarction

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Recently, the prognostic value of N-terminal brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in acute coronary syndrome has been demonstrated in many studies. However, NT-proBNP levels are influenced by various factors such as sex, age, renal function, heart failure severity, and obesity. NT-proBNP concentrations tend to decrease with higher body mass index (BMI). The aim of this study was to examine the influence of obesity on NT-proBNP as a predictive prognostic factor in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Using data from the Korea Acute Myocardial Infarction Registry (January 2005 to September 2008), 2,736 AMI patients were included in this study. These patients were divided into men (n=1,972, 70%) and women (n=764, 30%), and were grouped according to their BMIs. Major adverse cardiac events (MACE) during 1 year clinical follow-up were evaluated. RESULTS NT-proBNP was significantly higher in lower BMI (p<0.001). Mean NT-proBNP levels of each obesity group were 2,393±4,022 pg/mL in the lean group (n=875), 1,506±3,074 pg/mL in the overweight group (n=724) and 1,100±1,137 pg/mL in the obese group (n=1,137) (p<0.01). NT-proBNP was an independent prognostic factor of AMI in obese patients by multivariative analysis of independent risk factors of MACE (p=0.01). CONCLUSION NT-proBNP is lower in obese AMI patients than in non-obese AMI patients, but NT-proBNP is still of independent prognostic value in obese AMI patients.