I. Overview of Analytical Issues for Heart Failure Biomarkers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .e95 A. Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .e95 II. Analytical Biomarker Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .e96 A. Issues Related to B-Type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) and N-Terminal proB-Type Natriuretic Peptide (NTproBNP) Measure...

The measurement of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is recommended for the diagnosis of decompensated heart failure, the prognosis of chronic heart failure is worse if BNP is increased and studies suggest that BNP is useful to guide therapy. A study by Di Somma and colleagues adds to the body of evidence showing that patients with a marked decrease in BNP concentrations during their hospital ad...

Introduction: Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a late progressive sclerodermarelated complication, which can lead to right heart failure and cor pulmonale. Given that cardiac catheterization is a diagnostic method of choice for PAH, and considering the high risks of this method, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between serum Pro‐Brain natriuretic peptide (Pro‐B...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of pleural fluid brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), N-terminal pro-BNP (NT-pro-BNP) and ST2, which are biomarkers of myocyte stress, for diagnosing pleural effusions due to heart failure (HF). BNP and ST2 have not been previously evaluated in pleural fluid. METHODS The three biomarkers were measured in the pleural flu...

Cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) produce extracellular matrix proteins and participate in the remodeling of the heart. It is unknown if brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is synthesized by CFs and if BNP participates in the regulation of extracellular matrix turnover. In this study, we examined the production of BNP in adult canine CFs and the role of BNP and its signaling system on collagen synthesis an...

OBJECTIVES Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a cardiac peptide secreted by ventricle myocardial cells under stretch constraint. Increased BNP has been shown associated with increased mortality in end-stage renal disease patients. In patients starting haemodialysis (HD), both fluid overload and cardiac history are frequently present and may be responsible for a high BNP plasma level. We report ...

BACKGROUND In acute coronary syndrome (ACS), both the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) score and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) predict cardiovascular events. However, it is unknown how BNP compares with GRACE and how their combination performs in ACS. METHODS The authors recruited 449 consecutive ACS patients and measured admission GRACE score and bedside BNP levels. The ma...

BACKGROUND The prognostic value of BNP in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) has been repeatedly assessed, but not completely well established. Literature data for establishing the best time for assessing BNP, be it on hospital admission or after coronary intervention, are controversial. OBJECTIVE To analyze BNP in non-ST segment elevation ACS (NSTE-ACS) in the long term, and to assess the associa...

BACKGROUND Recent clinical trials have shown that systemic infusion of nesiritide, a recombinant human brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), improves hemodynamic parameters in acutely decompensated hearts. This suggests that BNP exerts a direct cardioprotective effect and might thus be a useful therapeutic agent with which to treat acute myocardial infarction (MI). In the present study, we used BNP-...