Plasma brain natriuretic peptide in athletes

To assess the diagnostic value of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) for diffe rentiation of physiologic left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy from pathologic LV hyper trophy in athletes, plasma BNP before and after incremental tread mill exercise until exhaustion was measured in joggers with apical-type hyp ertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC), competitive long-distance runners and hypert ensive subjects with echocardiographically documented eccentric LV hypertro phy, and sedentary controls. A statistically significant increase in postex ercise BNP levels was observed only in hypertensive subjects; however, rest ing plasma BNP levels were approximately 10-fold higher than in the other g roups and were further incremented upward after exercise in joggers with ap ical-type HC.