title: B-type natriuretic levels in critically ill patients: critically misleading?
abstract: Although B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) has been used for the diagnosis of congestive heart failure in many clinical settings, its diagnostic role in critically ill patients remains uncertain. The body of literature suggests that BNP and N-terminal pro-BNP levels are not useful for the diagnosis of systolic or diastolic heart failure in the critically ill, including in patients with brain hemorrhage, due to poor specificity. However, these cardiac peptides may have a more promising prognostic role in this patient population.
authors: Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, 6620 Main Street, 11A,08, Houston, TX 77030, USA. hishamd@bcm.edu
authors: Hisham
authors: H
authors: Dokainish
mesh_terms: D016638:Critical Illness; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D054144:Heart Failure, Diastolic / Q000175:diagnosis*; D054143:Heart Failure, Systolic / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D020097:Natriuretic Peptide, Brain / Q000097:blood*; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000097:blood*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D010446:Peptide Fragments; C109794:pro-brain natriuretic peptide (1-76); D020097:Natriuretic Peptide, Brain