The use of B-type natriuretic peptide in the management of elderly patients with acute dyspnoea

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of BNP (Nesiritide), published as a randomized controlled trial.

The aim of this study was to define the impact of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels on the management of elderly patients presenting with acute dyspnoea.

Who Took Part

The study group was 269 patients.

The age groups tagged for this paper are older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

The researchers performed a prospective randomized controlled study in 269 elderly patients at least 70 years of age included in the B-type natriuretic peptide for Acute Shortness of breath Evaluation (BASEL) study.

Patients were randomly assigned to a diagnostic strategy with (n = 136, BNP group) or without (n = 133, control group) the use of BNP levels provided by a rapid bedside assay.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the BNP (Nesiritide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

The time to discharge and the total cost of treatment were the primary end-points.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Acute Disease, Cardiac Output, Low, Dyspnea, Hospitalization, Natriuretic Peptide, Brain, Pneumonia and Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of BNP (Nesiritide) in 269 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 2005 (Journal of internal medicine), a journal based in England.

More context: the BNP (Nesiritide) compound page, all human trials.