Intravenous iron reduces NT-pro-brain natriuretic peptide in anemic patients with chronic heart failure and renal insufficiency

What Was Tested

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

Their objective was to evaluate in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study possible modifications in NT-pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels together with clinical and functional parameters, in a group of anemic patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and chronic renal failure (CRF) receiving intravenous iron therapy, without recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO), versus placebo.

Why It Was Studied

This situation is linked with a variable inflammatory status.

Both NT-proBNP and CRP are recognized markers for left ventricular dysfunction and inflammatory status, respectively.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

In this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study, modifications in NT-proBNP and CRP level and clinical and functional parameters, in anemic patients with CHF and CRF receiving intravenous iron therapy, without rhEPO, versus placebo were evaluated.

No patients received erythroprotein any time.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and pilot 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.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on BNP (Nesiritide), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the BNP (Nesiritide) group a baseline to be compared against.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger BNP (Nesiritide) study would be practical.

Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) and 6-min walk (6MW) test were performed.

NT-pro brain natriuretic peptide and CRP were evaluated throughout the study.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Anemia, Iron-Deficiency, Biomarkers, C-Reactive Protein, Exercise Tolerance, Ferric Compounds, Ferric Oxide, Saccharated and Glucaric Acid.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of BNP (Nesiritide).

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 7 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2007 (Journal of the American College of Cardiology), a journal based in United States.

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