A study of the correlation between the serum brain natriuretic peptide levels and the cardiac function in patients with heart failure

Objective: To investigation the correlation between the serum brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels and the severity of heart failure (HF) as well as left ventricular function (LVF) in patients with heart failure. Methods: One hundred and nineteen patients with HF and 42 control subjects were investigated by measuring the serum BNP levels, the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDd). Results: The serum BNP levels in patients with HF were markedly higher than those of control subjects (P0.01), and the increase of BNP levels was closely correlated with the severity of NYHA functional class, The BNP levels were correlated negatively with the LVEF (r=-0.685, P0.001) and positively with the LVEDd (r=0.624, P0.001). Conclusion: The increase of BNP levels is closely correlated with the severity of HF, further more, the BNP levels may reflect the LVF clearly.