Utility of B-type natriuretic peptide in predicting medium-term mortality in patients undergoing major non-cardiac surgery
Abstract
We assessed the ability of pre-operative B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels to predict medium-term mortality in patients undergoing major noncardiac surgery. During a median 654 days follow-up 33 patients from a total cohort of 204 patients (16%) died. The optimal cut-off in this cohort, determined using a receiver operating characteristic curve, was >35pg.mL-1. This was associated with a 3.47-fold increase in the hazard of death (p=0.001) and had a sensitivity of 70% and a specificity of 68% for this outcome. These findings extend recent work demonstrating that BNP levels obtained before major noncardiac surgery can be used to predict peri-operative morbidity, and indicate that they also forecast medium-term mortality.
Citation
Cuthbertson, B.H., Amiri, A.R., Croal, B.L., Rajagopalan, S., Brittennden, J., and Hillis, G.S. (2007). Utility of B-type natriuretic peptide in predicting medium-term mortality in patients undergoing major non-cardiac surgery. American Journal of Cardiology, 100(8), pp.1310-1313.