Evaluation of brain natriuretic peptide in the diagnosis of heart failure

A diagnosis of heart failure (HF) can be difficult, especially in patients with mild symptomatology, The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sig nificance of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in the diagnosis of HF with sy stolic or isolated diastolic ventricular dysfunction, One hundred patients and 9 controls were included in the study. Eighty-five patients were diagno sed with HF, based on clinical and echocardiographic findings, BNP levels w ere accurate for the diagnosis of HF, with an area under the receiver opera ting characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC) of 0.92, In addition, BNP levels show ed an excellent accuracy for the diagnosis of isolated diastolic HF (AUC = 0.89). These data suggest that the measurement of BNP levels may be helpful in the diagnosis of HF and in selecting patients for further evaluation. F urthermore, BNP measurement can play an important role in the diagnosis of isolated diastolic HF. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel.