Publications by authors named "Railton Bezerra de Melo"
Objective: To measure the serum levels of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in patients with chronic chagasic heart disease and in individuals with positive serology for Chagas' disease and no heart impairment, and to correlate the serum BNP levels with the degree of cardiac impairment, cardiac dimensions, presence of a pacemaker, and ejection fraction.
Methods: Serum BNP concentrations were determined by use of the Triage-BNP Test produced by BIOSITE. Serum BNP was assessed in 25 patients from the Chagas' disease outpatient clinic of the Hospital Universitario Oswaldo Cruz, who were divided into 2 groups as follows: 1) G1--comprising 13 asymptomatic patients with positive serology for Chagas' disease and no heart disease detectable on electrocardiography, chest X-ray, and echocardiography; and 2) G2--comprising 12 patients with Chagas' disease and heart impairment.