Influence of age on natriuretic peptides in patients with chronic heart failure : a comparison between ANP/NT-ANP and BNP/NT-proBNP.

• BACKGROUND: Natriuretic peptides are currently used in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with Chronic Heart Failure (CHF). However, it is unknown whether there are different influences of age on atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP)/N-terminal-ANP (NT-ANP) or B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP)/N-terminal-proBNP (NT-proBNP). AIMS: To compare the influence of age and gender on plasma levels of ANP/NT-ANP and BNP/NT-proBNP in CHF patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: Natriuretic peptides were measured in 311 CHF patients (68+/-8 years, 76% males, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) 0.23+/-0.08). All natriuretic peptides were significantly related to age (p<0.05) on multivariate regression analysis, with partial correlation coefficients of 0.18, 0.29, 0.28 and 0.25 for ANP, NT-ANP, BNP and NT-proBNP, respectively. The relative increase of both BNP/NT-proBNP were more pronounced than of ANP/NT-ANP (p<0.01). Furthermore, the relative increase of BNP with age was markedly larger than of NT-proBNP (p<0.01). Levels of all natriuretic peptides were also significantly related to cardiothoracic ratio, renal function and LVEF. CONCLUSION: In patients with CHF, BNP/NT-proBNP were more related to age than ANP/NT-ANP, and BNP was more related to age than NT-proBNP. However, in these CHF patients the influence of age on the levels of all natriuretic peptides was modest, and comparable to several other factors.

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