The use of B-type natriuretic peptide to diagnose congestive heart failure.

This paper explains the background and current use of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) assays to differentiate congestive heart failure (CHF) from other causes of dyspnea. With a large and growing elderly population, CHF is being diagnosed much more often in emergency rooms in the United States. Doctors need a way to quickly distinguish whether a patient with respiratory distress is suffering from cardiac insufficiency or another etiology. BNP is released from the ventricles in response cardiac overload from CHF or some other form of left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Therefore, the detection and measurement of BNP is a fast and accurate method of determining if CHF is the cause of a patient's breathing difficulties.