Plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) fragments proANP (1-30) and proANP(31-67) measurements in chronic heart failure: a useful index for heart trasplantation?

The family of the atrial natriuretic peptides, proANP fragments and the act ive alpha ANP, is strongly related to heart disease. The aim was to study i n CHF subjects the relation of mdANP and NtANP with brain natriuretic pepti de (BNP) and with other traditional medical parameters. Sixteen CHF patient s (aged 51.9 +/- 13.7 years) and 16 healthy subjects age matched (50.8 +/-5 .9 years) were selected. Both NtANP and mdANP were higher in CHF patients t han in healthy subjects (1436 +/- 288 vs. 288 +/- 22 pmol/l p<0.001 and 230 5<plus/minus>383 vs. 423 +/- 65 pmol/l p<0.0001, respectively). BNP in CHF patients was 28.0<plus/minus>9 pmol/l (reference values 1.7 +/-1.8 pmol/l). Both NtANP and mdANP demonstrated positive correlation with BNP, p<0.0001 and with left atrial end-systolic volume, p<0.05. BNP correlated with left ventricular mass, p<0.03. In conclusion, plasma NtANP and mdANP analyses ar e useful laboratory markers in CHF patient investigation and follow up. In particular, they could be employed as non-invasive parameters to follow up worsening of systolic dysfunction until heart transplantation is required. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.