Utility of B-natriuretic peptide in detecting diastolic dysfunction: comparison with Doppler velocity recordings. The impact of cardiac natriuretic peptide determination on the diagnosis and management of heart failure. Assessment of preoperative pro-BNP levels in patients with rheumatic heart disease with normal left ventricular function; Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases. et al. Usefulness...

The landmark report by de Bold et al. in 1981 signified the heart as one of the endocrine organs involved in fluid and salt balance (de Bold AJ, Borenstein HB, Veress AT, Sonnenberg H. Life Sci 28: 89-94, 1981). Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) are secreted from cardiomyocytes in response to cardiac stretch as in the case of heart failure, whereas C-type natr...

Natriuretic peptides (NPs), such as atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP), and adrenomedullin (ADM), are endogenous vasodilators acting via specific receptors. This study addressed the question of how pulmonary artery (PA) responses to these peptides and the gene expression of their receptors are modulated in pulmonary hypertension rat models exposed to chronic hypo...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether testosterone administration alters natriuretic peptide levels in women. DESIGN Three-month, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. SETTING Clinical research center. PATIENT(S) Fifty-one women with hypoandrogenemia due to hypopituitarism. INTERVENTION(S) Transdermal testosterone (300 μg daily) or placebo patch. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) N-Ter...

Plasma concentrations of atrial natriuretic peptide and aldosterone and plasma renin activity were measured in patients with peripartum heart failure and in age matched healthy women post partum. Both groups had carried out traditional postpartum practices of salt consumption and body heating. Plasma concentrations (mean (SEM)) of atrial natriuretic peptide were significantly higher in the seve...

BACKGROUND Although natriuretic peptides are considered cardioprotective, clinical heart failure trials with recombinant brain natriuretic peptide (nesiritide) failed to prove it. Unsuspected proadrenergic effects might oppose the anticipated benefits of natriuretic peptides. METHODS AND RESULTS We investigated whether natriuretic peptides induce catecholamine release in isolated hearts, symp...

Osteocrin (Ostn) is a recently discovered secreted protein produced by cells of the osteoblast lineage that shows a well conserved homology with members of the natriuretic peptide (NP) family. We hypothesized that Ostn could interact with the NP receptors, thereby modulating NP actions on the skeleton. Ostn binds specifically and saturably to the NP peptide receptor-C (NPR-C) receptor with a Kd...

It has been suggested that the impaired natriuretic response of the clipped kidney in two-kidney, one clip hypertensive rats is related to downregulation of renal atrial natriuretic peptide receptors. To test this hypothesis, blood volume expansion and atrial peptide binding studies were performed in this model. Infusion of 1% and then 1.5% body weight donor blood (n = 6) caused a progressive i...

Proatrial Natriuretic Peptide Levels in Obese Patients: A Cause or Result of Hypertension? To the Editor: We read with great interest the paper by Wang et al1 indicating that obese subjects had lower brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal proatrial natriuretic peptide (N-terminal proANP) levels than did lean subjects in a large sample population of the Framingham Heart Study. They specu...

The cardiovascular system is regulated by hemodynamic and neurohumoral mechanisms. These regulatory systems play a key role in modulating cardiac function, vascular tone, and structure. Although neurohumoral systems are essential in vascular homeostasis, they become maladaptive in disease states such as hypertension, coronary disease, and heart failure. The clinical success of ACE inhibitors ha...