B-type natriuretic peptide in the evaluation and management of dyspnoea in primary care

What Was Tested

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

The rapid and accurate diagnosis of heart failure in primary care is a major unmet clinical need.

The researchers evaluated the additional use of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 323 patients were involved.

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

A total of 323 consecutive patients presenting with dyspnoea.

Assignment in a 1 : 1 ratio to a diagnostic strategy including point-of-care measurement of BNP (n = 163) or standard assessment without BNP (n = 160).

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and single-blind 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.

In this single-blind BNP (Nesiritide) study one party knew the assignments and the other did not.

Twenty-nine primary care physicians in Switzerland and Germany coordinated by the University Hospital Basel, Switzerland.

The total medical cost at 3 months was the primary end-point.

Secondary end-points were diagnostic certainty, time to appropriate therapy, functional capacity, hospitalization and mortality.

The final diagnosis was adjudicated by a physician blinded to the BNP levels.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Biomarkers, Dyspnea, Electrocardiography, Heart Failure, Natriuretic Agents, Natriuretic Peptide, Brain and Primary Health Care.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and single-blind study of BNP (Nesiritide) in 323 patients.

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

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2012 (Journal of internal medicine), a journal based in England.

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