Stability of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in human whole blood and plasma

Brain natriuretic peptide is proposed as a biochemical marker which could p rovide a useful screening test to select patients for further cardiac inves tigations in heart failure. The applicability of such a biochemical test in clinics, hospital wards, and clinical laboratories is dependent on its eas e of use and on the complexity of sample handling. The present study was un dertaken to evaluate the stability of brain natriuretic peptide under a num ber of different handling conditions (sample collection, storage temperatur es, freezing temperatures) assayed with a commercially available kit. The r esults clearly demonstrate that brain natriuretic peptide is stable at room temperature far 24 hours, or in up to 30 degrees C for 12 hours in the pre sence and absence of aprotinin, on the condition that brain natriuretic pep tide is assayed within one month (frozen at -20 degrees C) after blood coll ection. The presence of aprotinin prevents brain natriuretic peptide degrad ation in samples preserved for more than 1 month at -20 degrees C before as say.