Clinical evaluation effect of brain natriuretic peptide in patients with heart failure

Objective: To explore the clinical value of plasma brain natriuretic peptide(BNP) on the diagnosis and clinical evaluation on patients with chronic heart failure(CHF). Methods: 60 patients with heart failure and 20 patients without cardiopathy according to the results of coronary artery angiography, echocardiography and other examination were enrolled from June 2004 to Jan 2005. BNP levels were measured by ELISA. Colored Doppler echocardiography was performed to measure the left ventricular function and the correlating parameters. Analyze the correlation between BNP level, the state of cardiac function and the echocardiography markers. Results: BNP level in CHF group was markedly higher than that in control group(96.49±85.73)pg/ml vs(5.79±4.22)pg/ml(P0.001); in different NYHA functional classes were (22.40±9.72) pg/ml, (47.77±20.03) pg/ml, (88.38±35.87) pg/ml, (184.69±92.93) pg/ml respectively, and there were statistical significance among them.Serum BNP level increased significantly with incremental NYHA functional classes;and had a negative correlation with LVEF(r=-0.675, P0.001), a positive correlation with LVEDD(r=0.682, P0.001). Conclusion: Serum BNP level in patients with CHF elevated significantly with the severity of heart failure and can better reflect the left ventricular function. It can be served as a effective marker of the diagnose and risk stratification in CHF.