Plasma NT-proBNP concentration is related to ambulatory pulse pressure in peripheral arterial disease.

Background: Increased levels of N-terminal prohormone brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) are associated with left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), but the relation of NT-proBNP to ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and hypertensive target organ damage in high-risk patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) has not been studied. We hypothesized that NT-proBNP levels were increased in patients with PAD in comparison to a matched control group and that levels of NT-proBNP were related to ABP.

Methods: Blood samples were analysed for NT-proBNP in 103 males with PAD and 96 age- and sex-matched controls.

Wavelet decomposition of cardiovascular signals for baroreceptor function tests in pigs.

In this paper, the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) was applied to analyze the fluctuations in RR interval and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) recorded from eight alpha-chloralose anesthetized pigs. Our aim was to characterize the autonomic modulation before and after cardiac autonomic blockade and during baroreflex function tests. The instantaneous power of decomposed low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) components was used for a time-variant spectral analysis.