Vasodilatory effects of B-type natriuretic peptide are impaired in patients with chronic heart failure

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at BNP (Nesiritide) and ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide).

Plethysmography was used to determine the vasodilatory effects of BNP and to compare these to the effects of ANP in patients with CHF (n = 15) and age-matched healthy subjects (n = 16).

Why It Was Studied

B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) are secreted from the heart and are thought to be equally important factors in the regulation of vascular tone in health and in congestive heart failure (CHF).

However, no studies directly compare vasodilator effects of these peptides in healthy subjects and in patients with CHF.

Who Took Part

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

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the BNP (Nesiritide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Forearm blood flow (FBF) was measured, and cyclic GMP (cGMP) spillover was calculated.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Atrial Natriuretic Factor, Chronic Disease, Cyclic GMP, Forearm, Heart Failure, Hemodynamics and Natriuretic Peptide, Brain.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of BNP (Nesiritide) and ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide).

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 1998 (American heart journal), a journal based in United States.

More context: the BNP (Nesiritide) compound page and the ANP (Atrial Natriuretic Peptide) compound page, all human trials.