Favourable effects of exercise training on N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide plasma levels in elderly patients after acute myocardial infarction

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at BNP (Nesiritide).

This study aims at evaluating the effect of exercise training (ET) on NT-pro-BNP plasma levels in older patients recovering from acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Who Took Part

The study group was 20 patients.

PubMed indexes the participants as older adults, both men and women.

Forty older patients (33 males and 7 females) who experienced AMI.

Patients were randomised into two groups, each composed of 20 patients: Group A were enrolled in a 3-month exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation (CR) programme and Group B were discharged home with generic instructions to continue physical activity.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

Because people in this BNP (Nesiritide) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

NT-pro-BNP, cardiopulmonary and Doppler-echocardiographic parameters were measured at baseline and at 3-month follow-up.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena, Exercise Therapy, Exercise Tolerance, Myocardial Infarction, Natriuretic Peptide, Brain and Peptide Fragments.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of BNP (Nesiritide) in 20 patients.

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.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2006 (Age and ageing), a journal based in England.

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