Handheld ultrasound, B-natriuretic peptide for screening stage B heart failure.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if B-natriuretic peptide (BNP), handheld ultrasound, and echo interpretation was an accurate and reliable screening for stage B heart failure.


METHODS
One hundred and forty-five indigent diabetic patients were prospectively enrolled, and their BNP levels were measured. Each patient underwent a handheld echo.


RESULTS
BNP was correlated with ejection fraction, but not with diastolic dysfunction. The area under the receiver-operator characteristic was 0.77. Kappa statistics for reliability in interpreting handheld echoes was 1.0.


CONCLUSIONS
Results from this study suggested that BNP may be able to serve as a reliable screening tool for stage B heart failure in diabetic populations. Because BNP is an inexpensive blood test, it could be incorporated into the congestive heart failure diagnostic algorithm to determine which patients need imaging studies, namely echocardiography. Handheld echocardiography had interobserver reliability and is a promising alternative screening method.
Division of Cardiology, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL 33136, USA. khebert1@gmail.com
Kathy
K
Hebert
Ron
R
Horswell
Paul
P
Heidenreich
Jennifer
J
Miranda
Lee
L
Arcement
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods; D018618:Echocardiography, Doppler, Color / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020097:Natriuretic Peptide, Brain / Q000097:blood*; D015588:Observer Variation; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012372:ROC Curve; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013318:Stroke Volume; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology
D020097:Natriuretic Peptide, Brain