B-type natriuretic peptide as a predictor of declining cognitive function and dementia--a cohort study of an elderly general population with a 5-year follow-up

What Was Tested

Researchers studied BNP (Nesiritide) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The aim of the study was to compare B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) with previously known risk markers for dementia in their association with cognitive decline and dementia during a follow-up.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 464 subjects taking part.

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

A total of 464 subjects free of dementia aged 75 years or more were examined and followed up for 5 years in a prospective population-based stratified cohort study.

The association of clinical variables to base-line Mini Mental State Examination score (MMSE), the decline of MMSE, and onset of dementia during the follow-up were examined.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

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

A time span of 5 years appears in the methods.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Cognition, Cognition Disorders, Cohort Studies, Dementia, Educational Status, Finland and Hypertension.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of BNP (Nesiritide) in 464 subjects over 5 years.

With several hundred people or more, it is a fairly large study for this kind of research.

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2010 (Annals of medicine), a journal based in England.

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