Effects of prolonged strenuous exercise on plasma levels of atrial natriuretic peptide and brain natriuretic peptide in healthy men

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at BNP (Nesiritide) and ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide).

Levels of plasma ANP, BNP, catecholamines, blood lactate, and serum cardiac troponin T (cTnT) were determined before and after a 100-km ultramarathon in 10 healthy men to examine the effects of the exercise on levels of ANP and BNP and correlations between the natriuretic peptides and cTnT as a marker for myocardial damage.

Why It Was Studied

Now that marathon racing is growing in popularity, many thousands of enthusiastic athletes are participating in various ultramarathons all over the world each year.

However, it remains controversial whether such a sport contributes to the promotion of health.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 10 men taking part.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults and middle-aged adults, men only.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got BNP (Nesiritide) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

What Was Measured

Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a cardiac hormone, as is atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), and its measurement has been widely used for clinical evaluation of cardiac dysfunction.

The researchers hypothesized that confirmation of minimal cardiac dysfunction or myocardial injury may be made by measurements of plasma BNP.

The subject headings attached to it are Atrial Natriuretic Factor, Biomarkers, Epinephrine, Exercise, Hematocrit, Hemoglobins and Lactic Acid.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of BNP (Nesiritide) and ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide) in 10 men.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 3 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2001 (American heart journal), a journal based in United States.

More context: the BNP (Nesiritide) compound page and the ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide) compound page, all human trials.