We read with great interest the recent article by Maclay and MacNee 1 in CHEST (March 2013). The authors discussed different potential mechanisms that link COPD to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, which will be the focus of novel therapeutic targets in the near future. We feel, however, that the relation among brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), COPD, and cardiovascular disease must be...

OBJECTIVE The prognosis of patients with acute myocardial infarction depends on multiple features that can demonstrate myocardial injury degree (such as serum markers of cardiac necrosis), and also on adaptive mechanisms relative to the acute event. The aim of the study was to assess the relation between biochemical and echocardiographic findings from three-dimensional echocardiographic (3D Ech...

BACKGROUND The role of biomarkers such as B-type natriuretic peptides (BNP and NT-proBNP) and troponins in risk stratification of acute pulmonary embolism (APE) is still debated. A meta-analysis was performed to assess the association between raised natriuretic peptide levels, alone or in conjunction with troponins, and all-cause and APE-related mortality, serious adverse events and echographic...

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

background: serum n-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (nt-probnp), a polypeptide secreted by ventricular myocytes in response to stretch, was suggested as a predictor of adverse prognosis of the acute coronary syndrome (acs). we examined the association between nt-probnp level and angiographic findings in acs patients to determine whether it could be used as a predictor of the severity of ...

background: brain type natriuretic peptide (bnp) is a cardiac hormone that is secreted mainly by the ventricles in response to volume expansion and pressure load. it can predict post-operative complications after heart surgery in adults. we sought to investigate the prognostic value of bnp in children after heart surgery. methods: we measured the bnp serum levels in 96 children with congenital ...

background respiratory distress syndrome (rds) is considered as one of the most popular prematurity-related respiratory problems and among the most prominent reasons of deaths in preterm infants. objectives brain natriuretic peptide (bnp) is the secret of the volume and pressure overload response of the vessels and decreases due to resistance as well as rises in systemic vessels and also in dec...

Marfan syndrome (MFS) is a systemic disorder of connective tissue caused by mutations in fibrillin-1. Cardiac dysfunction in MFS has not been characterized halting the development of therapies of cardiac complication in MFS. We aimed to study the age-dependent cardiac remodeling in the mouse model of MFS FbnC1039G+/- mouse [Marfan heterozygous (HT) mouse] and its association with valvular regur...

We evaluated the effects of an intra-aortic balloon pump on hemodynamics, brain natriuretic peptide concentration and cardiac function of patients with acute myocardial infarction, after reperfusion therapy. Sixty-three patients with acute anterior wall ST-elevation myocardial infarction who underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention were given an intra-aortic balloon pump (32 cases) ...

The plasma concentrations of natriuretic peptides, BNP and NTproBNP, have been shown to be markers for the diagnosis of congestive heart failure (CHF). In this study, plasma BNP and NTproBNP concentrations were evaluated and stratified according to renal function, body mass index (BMI), and New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification. Comparison studies between the 2 natriuretic peptide ma...