title: Obesity does not influence the correlation between exercise capacity and serum NT-proBNP levels in chronic heart failure.
abstract: Recent studies have shown that obesity is an independent predictor of lower N-terminal pro-BNP (NT-proBNP) levels and raised concerns about the validity of this biomarker in obese subjects. We evaluated the influence of obesity (body mass index>or=30 kg/m(2)) on the correlation between exercise capacity and serum NT-proBNP levels in 100 chronic heart failure (CHF) patients referred for cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Circulating NT-proBNP levels correlated well with lean body mass-adjusted peak oxygen consumption (VO(2)) in the entire cohort (R=-0.72, p<0.001) and in the obese (R=-0.71, p<0.001) and non-obese (R=-0.72, p<0.001) subgroups. There was no significant difference between the correlation coefficients of the two subgroups (p=0.934). In conclusion NT-proBNP levels predict exercise capacity in CHF patients irrespective of the presence of obesity.
authors: António Miguel
authors: AM
authors: Ferreira
authors: Miguel
authors: M
authors: Mendes
authors: António
authors: A
authors: Ventosa
authors: Carlos T
authors: CT
authors: Aguiar
authors: Jorge
authors: J
authors: Ferreira
authors: João M
authors: JM
authors: Figueira
authors: José A
authors: JA
authors: Silva
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D017079:Exercise Tolerance; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020097:Natriuretic Peptide, Brain / Q000097:blood*; D009765:Obesity / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D010446:Peptide Fragments; C109794:pro-brain natriuretic peptide (1-76); D020097:Natriuretic Peptide, Brain