Point-of-Care Ultrasound Abnormalities in Late-Onset Severe Preeclampsia: Prevalence and Association With Serum Albumin and Brain Natriuretic Peptide

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of BNP (Nesiritide), published as an observational study.

The primary aim was to examine the association between PIS or ONSD and maternal serum albumin level.

Why It Was Studied

Pilot studies applying point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in preeclampsia indicate the presence of pulmonary interstitial edema, cerebral edema, and cardiac dysfunction.

Laboratory markers of oncotic pressure (albumin) and cardiac dysfunction (brain natriuretic peptide [BNP]) may be abnormal, but the clinical application remains unclear.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, women only.

Ninety-five women were enrolled in this prospective observational cohort study.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a pilot study.

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

A POCUS examination of lungs, heart, and ONSD was performed.

PIS was defined as a bilateral B-line pattern on lung ultrasound and diastolic dysfunction according to an algorithm of the American Society of Echocardiography.

ONSD >5.8 mm was interpreted as compatible with raised intracranial pressure (>20 mm Hg).

Serum BNP and albumin levels were also measured.

What Was Measured

The secondary aims were to explore the association between cardiac dysfunction and PIS, ONSD, BNP, and serum albumin level and between POCUS-derived parameters and a suspicious or pathological cardiotocograph.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Algorithms, Cardiotocography, Echocardiography, Heart, Heart Defects, Congenital, Heart Ventricles and Incidence.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a pilot study of BNP (Nesiritide).

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 13 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2019 (Anesthesia and analgesia), a journal based in United States.

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