Medical Laboratory Observer

NT-proBNP: Improved Standard in CHF Diagnosis

By Barry Bluestein, PhD, and Alexander Belenky, PhD

The utility of natriuretic peptides (NPs) — both brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal prohormone brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) — as an aid in diagnosing congestive heart failure (CHF) is well known. Both markers have been shown in a number of studies to be useful blood tests to rule in and rule out CHF.

While numerous studies show these markers to be clinically comparable, NT-proBNP has been deemed superior by many investigators due to its increased half-life in blood. The increased half-life of the NT-proBNP molecule compared to BNP is advantageous in terms of improved prognostic value in both CHF and acute coronary syndrome (ACS) as it “normalizes” individual biologic variation, thereby enhancing the predictive value of the biomarker.

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