Plasma brain natriuretic peptide as a biochemical marker of high left ventricular end-diastolic pressure in patients with symptomatic left ventricular dysfunction.

BACKGROUND: Plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), mainly from the atrium, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), mainly from the ventricle, norepinephrine (NE), and endothelin-1 (ET-1) levels are increased with the severity of congestive heart failure (CHF). Although a close correlation between the left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP) and plasma ANP in patients with left ventricular dysfunction has been reported, it is not yet known which cardiac natriuretic peptide is a better predictor of high LVEDP in patients with CHF.

METHODS: To investigate the biochemical predictors of the high LVEDP in patients with left ventricular dysfunction, we measured plasma ANP, BNP, NE, and ET-1 levels and the hemodynamic parameters in 72 patients with symptomatic left ventricular dysfunction. Stepwise multivariate regression analyses were also used to determine whether the plasma levels of ANP, BNP, NE, and ET-1 could predict high LVEDP.

RESULTS: Although significant positive correlations were found among the plasma levels of ANP, BNP, ET-1, and NE and the LVEDP, only BNP (p = 0.0001) was an independent and significant predictor of high LVEDP in patients with CHF. In all eight patients with severe CHF measured for hemodynamics before and after the treatments, the plasma BNP levels decreased in association with the decrease of LVEDP, whereas other factors increased in some patients despite the decrease of LVEDP.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that plasma BNP is superior to ANP as a predictor of high LVEDP in patients with symptomatic left ventricular dysfunction.