The utility of n-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide as an adjunct diagnostic tool for acute heart failure in acute dyspneic patients coming to the emergency department: A retrospective review of our early experience
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Abstract
Acute dyspnea is one of the prevalent reasons for admission to the emergency department. The use of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) as an adjunct for assessing acute dyspnea is not a common practice in many public hospitals in Malaysia. This retrospective review is part of our clinical audit to determine the utility of NT-proBNP as an adjunct to non-standardised clinical evaluation in identifying acute heart failure (HF) in patients with persistent dyspnea (24 h) post-admission. In this cohort of 30 patients with acute dyspnea, NT-proBNP was positive in zo patients (87%) with acute HF. Three patients (13%) who were treated for septic shock recorded a NT-proBNP false-positive. NT-proBNP demonstrated an overall sensitivity of 90%, a specificity of 70%, a positive predictive value of 85.7% and a negative predictive value of 77.8% in identifying acute HF. These results reinforce that age-stratified NT-proBNP cut-off values are useful for ruling-in or -out acute HF. Thus, NT-proBNP should be considered a crucial point of care, testing to deafer the conundrum of acute dyspneic patients.
Keywords
Acute heart failure, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide
Divisions
medicinedept
Publication Title
Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences
Volume
28
Issue
4
Publisher
Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia