Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) is a randomized trial determining whether intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) aimed at long-term weight loss and increased physical fitness reduces cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes compared to control (diabetes support and education, DSE). We investigated the correlates of N-terminal pro...

BACKGROUND Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal (NT)-proBNP have recently emerged as promising parameters for risk assessment in acute pulmonary embolism (PE). However, their positive predictive value is low, and the prognostic implications of NT-proBNP or troponin elevation alone are questionable. METHODS AND RESULTS To determine whether the combination of NT-proBNP testing with ec...

OBJECTIVE The primary aim was to investigate the role of underlying heart disease on preoperative NT-proBNP levels in patients admitted for adult cardiac surgery, after adjusting for the known confounders age, gender, obesity and renal function. The second aim was to investigate the predictive value of preoperative NT-proBNP with regard to severe postoperative heart failure (SPHF) and postopera...

Objective: To evaluate whether measurements of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) can be used to differentiate patients with normal and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in an unselected consecutive group of hospital inpatients. Setting: City general hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark. Patients and design: During a 10 month period 2230 admissions to a city general h...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Because of its association with atrial fibrillation and heart failure, we hypothesized that amino terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) would identify a subgroup of patients from the Warfarin-Aspirin Recurrent Stroke Study, diagnosed with inferred noncardioembolic ischemic strokes, where anticoagulation would be more effective than antiplatelet agents in red...

The potential value of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) for contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) in patients with heart failure and mid-range ejection fraction (HFmrEF) is unclear. We investigated whether NT-proBNP is associated with CI-AKI and long-term mortality following elective cardiac catheterization in patients with HFmrEF.A total of 174 consecutive patients ...

BACKGROUND Both high concentrations of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and obesity are related to higher heart failure risk. However, inverse relationships between NT-proBNP and obesity have been reported. Therefore, it was investigated whether the association between NT-proBNP and the risk of heart failure differed according to obesity status. METHODS A case-cohort study...

BACKGROUND The specific forms of pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (proBNP) that occur in human blood are not yet clear. We demonstrated the presence of several proBNP forms in human plasma with a new affinity chromatography method that can be used in combination with nano-liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (nano-LC-ESI-MS/MS). METHODS For affinity chromatogra...

Circulating levels of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and NH(2)-terminal-proBNP (NT-proBNP) increase in response to volume overload and help in the differential diagnosis of acute heart failure. Elevated plasma BNP levels are observed also in sepsis and do not always correspond to left ventricular dysfunction. Here, we investigated plasma NT-proBNP fluctuations in response to human bacterial e...

BACKGROUND The effect of impaired kidney function on B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal proBNP (NT-proBNP) is vague. This study was performed to examine the effect of kidney dysfunction on the afore-mentioned markers and determine appropriate cutoffs for systolic heart failure (SHF). METHODS In this cross sectional study adults with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <60...