Efficacy of brain natriuretic peptide in predicting restenosis and coronary events in patients who had undergone percutaneous coronary intervention

Introduction: Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a highly sensitive and specific diagnostic tool used in heart failure. It is not only useful in diagnosis of heart failure but also in prediction of cardiovascular events in patients with coronary heart disease. Most of the patients who had undergone percutaneous coroner intervention with coronary revascularization had restenosis and coroner events during follow up. An easily applicable and commercially available diagnostic marker is needed for these patients in their long-term follow up and treatment. In this study, we sought to test the efficacy of BNP, in predicting future events and restenosis rate in patients who had undergone PCI.Research design-Method: 73 consecutive patients who had admitted to cardiology and emergency department with chest pain and diagnosed to have critical coronary lesions were included in this study. The study was performed in Düzce University School of Medicine, Dept of Cardiology from 2006 to 2008. Pre and post PCI BNP was measured in all patients. Patients were followed up for future cardiovascular events and stent restenosis.Results: In this study, BNP was found to be a useful marker for prediction of mortality and re-infarction in-patients who had coronary intervention. BNP levels ?150 pg/ml predicted the mortality with 100% sensitivity and 79% specificity and predicted the re-infarction rate with 80% sensitivity and 79% specificity. We have not found any significant predictive value for restenosis rate during the follow-up period.Conclusions: Our findings suggest that BNP is a useful marker for prediction of mortality and re-infarction in patients who had coronary intervention, but not sufficient for predicting restenosis rate during follow up. Further studies with larger cohorts are needed to determine the value of BNP for predicting restenosis rate.Keywords: BNP, coronary angioplasty, restenosis