Nesiritide following maze and mitral valve surgery

What Was Tested

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

The researchers hypothesized prophylactic administration of nesiritide (human recombinant brain natriuretic peptide, NES, Natrecor, Scios, Fremont, CA, USA), which has similar physiologic properties to ANP and would promote diuresis in maze and mitral patients postoperatively.

Who Took Part

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

Randomized, blinded, prospective pilot study comparing patients undergoing maze and mitral surgery including excision of the left atrial appendage.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as 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.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received BNP (Nesiritide).

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with BNP (Nesiritide) could be set against what happens without it.

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

Diuresis, diuretics, time to extubation, oxygenation, ANP, and serum Endothelin-1 levels were measured.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Atrial Natriuretic Factor, Biomarkers, Cardiac Surgical Procedures, Edema, Cardiac, Endothelin-1, Mitral Valve and Natriuretic Agents.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Results are reported in around 4 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2008 (Journal of cardiac surgery), a journal based in United States.

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