Patients with stable coronary disease could potentially avoid echocardiographic or nuclear studies of ventricular function if their serum natriuretic peptide levels are low, suggests a prospective study that further extends the diagnostic and prognostic possibilities for an assay usually used in acute heart failure.
Ventricular dysfunction, either systolic or diastolic as measured by echocardiography, was rare among the study's patients with levels of the natriuretic fragment of brain natriuretic peptide prohormone (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide; NT-proBNP) below 100 pg/mL. The chances of any ventricular dysfunction were about 50-50 among those with very high levels, more than 500 pg/mL.
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