The cardiac natriuretic peptides, ANP (atrial natriuretic peptide) and BNP (brain natriuretic peptide), are secreted by the heart in proportion to cardiac transmural pressures. They possess a wide range of effects in multiple tissues facilitating overall pressure/volume homoeostasis. The close relationship between plasma concentrations of these peptides and 'cardiac load' has led to their use a...

BACKGROUND It is unclear whether coronary artery stenosis affects the secretion of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) from the heart independent of ventricular dysfunction. Therefore, this study evaluated the relationship between BNP and NT-proBNP secretion, plasma levels and the severity of coronary artery stenosis in patients with stable c...

AIM Although plasma NT-proBNP differentiates hypertension (HT) with or without left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) from hypertensive heart failure (HHF), most of the published data are based on studies in Western populations. Also, most previous studies did not consider left ventricular (LV) diastolic function and right ventricular (RV) function. We therefore examined the relation between NT-pro...

OBJECTIVES This study sought to characterize factors influencing amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and to evaluate the ability of NT-proBNP to detect left ventricular (LV) dysfunction in a large community sample. BACKGROUND Secretion of BNP increases in cardiac disease, making BNP an attractive biomarker. Amino-terminal proBNP, a fragment of the BNP prohormone, is a ne...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular diseases are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients. The increased inflammatory biomarker levels predict exacerbations and are associated with cardiovascular diseases in stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients but their role in the settings of acute chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation...

Background. Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common rheumatological disease of childhood (1 : 1,000 children), which involves many organs and systems, primarily cardiovascular, with gradual development chronic heart failure. As you know, when functional capacity decreases, a cascade reactions neurohumoral regulation system triggered and, first all, sympathoadrenal activated an in...

OBJECTIVE The main objective of this study was to determine a cutoff level of plasma N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) that could successfully predict the short- and long-term prognosis of patients with acute heart failure at the time of admission to the emergency department. The results of our study are presented in context with previously published literature. We believe t...

Acute administration of adrenomedullin (AM) exerts beneficial hemodynamic, renal, and neurohormonal effects in heart failure (HF). However, chronic effects of AM administration on HF remain unknown. This study sought to examine the effect of chronic infusion of AM on progression of HF in rat. Human recombinant AM was administered by osmotic minipump for 7 weeks in the HF model of Dahl salt-sens...

Plasma concentrations of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) are raised in patients with left ventricular dysfunction. Measurement of this peptide has a potential diagnostic role in the identification and assessment of patients with heart failure. The stability of this peptide over time periods and conditions pertaining to routine clinical practice has not been reported previou...

Peripartum cardiomyopathy is a rare but potentially life-threatening condition. The current definition of peripartum cardiomyopathy only includes patients with systolic dysfunction. We describe a 25-year-old nulligravid patient with heart failure, i.e. left ventricular diastolic dysfunction with preserved systolic dysfunction during the third trimester of pregnancy. She complained of dyspnea an...