Differential hormonal profiles of adrenomedullin and proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide in patients with heart failure and effect of treatment on their plasma levels

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Adrenomedullin, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The present study sought to examine the relationships between the two peptides and other clinical parameters by measuring the plasma AM and PAMP concentrations in 98 patients with heart failure.

Why It Was Studied

Adrenomedullin (AM) is a potent vasodilatory peptide discovered in human pheochromocytoma tissue.

Proadrenomedullin N-terminal 20 peptide (PAMP) processed from an AM precursor is also a novel hypotensive peptide which inhibits catecholamine secretion from sympathetic nerve endings.

Who Took Part

The study group was 98 patients.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults, both men and women.

In all, 98 patients [65 men and 33 women, aged 58.2 +/- 11.0 years, mean +/- standard deviation (SD)] with heart failure and 26 healthy volunteers (12 men and 14 women, aged 54.1 +/- 8.6 years) were examined in this study.

Heart failure was secondary to previous myocardial infarction in 58 patients, valvular disease in 28, cardiomyopathy in 9, and congenital heart disease in 3.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Adrenomedullin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

All patients were classified into two groups of class I or II (Group 1) and class III or IV (Group 2) according to the New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Adrenomedullin, Atrial Natriuretic Factor, Cardiac Catheterization, Cardiomyopathies, Epinephrine, Heart Failure and Natriuretic Peptide, Brain.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Adrenomedullin in 98 patients.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 1999 (Clinical cardiology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Adrenomedullin compound page, all human trials.