Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is an important cause of heart failure in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The pro brain natriuretic peptide N-terminal (NT-proBNP) has been suggested as a noninvasive marker to evaluate ventricular function. However, there is no evidence to support the use of NT-proBNP in monitoring the benefits of vasodilators in COPD induced PH. Thus, we used NT-proBN...

aminoterminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide testing for the diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of dyspneic patients with diabetes mellitus seen in the emergency department (from the PRIDE study). Am J Cardiol 2007;100:1336–40. 4. Azevedo A, Bettencourt P, Pimenta J, et al. Clinical syndrome suggestive of heart failure is frequently attributable to non-cardiac disorders—population-based study....

1. Fox AA, Collard CD, Shernan SK, Seidman CE, Seidman JG, Liu KY, Muehlschlegel JD, Perry TE, Aranki SF, Lange C, Herman DS, Meitinger T, Lichtner P, Body SC: Natriuretic peptide system gene variants are associated with ventricular dysfunction after coronary artery bypass grafting. ANESTHESIOLOGY 2009; 110:738–47 2. Fox AA, Shernan SK, Collard CD, Liu KY, Aranki SF, DeSantis SM, Jarolim P, Bod...

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of eplerenone, a selective aldosterone blocker, on cardiac function after myocardial infarction (MI) and myocardial remodelling related transcriptional factors and mRNA expression in non-infarcted myocardium. METHODS MI was induced by ligation of the coronary artery in Wistar rats. Rats were randomly assigned to a vehicle treated group or an eplerenone treated...

This prospective study was designed to evaluate the prognostic value of the percentage of plasma lymphocytes in patients with diastolic dysfunction as well as systolic dysfunction of the left ventricle. The subjects were 70 consecutive patients who were hospitalized in our institution from April 2001 to August 2002. Following the improvement of congestive heart failure, leukocyte differentiatio...

Little information is available about the potential role of brain (type B) natriuretic peptide in patients with acute myocardial infarction. We therefore analyzed peptide levels, measured at discharge from our coronary care unit, in 56 patients admitted with a diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. We examined peptide concentrations in the light of different features in our patients, and fou...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical usefulness of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-Pro BNP) and nitric oxide (NO) with echocardiography (gold standard test) in diagnosis of canine cardiomyopathy. Out of 374 cases, 82 cases showing cardiovascular abnormalities including 16 cases of cardiomyopathy were further selected for standardization of biomarkers. Significant (P