Abstract
Background: The efficacy of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) acting as a prognostic factor in critically ill patients is controversial. The present study aimed to detect whether NT-pro-BNP is predictive of 28-day mortality in a non-surgical cohort of critically ill patients.
Methods: A total of 214 consecutive patients admitted to the Medical Intensive Care, in a tertiary university hospital between January 2014 and December 2014, were assessed. Patients with recent acute coronary syndromes or major surgery were excluded.
Results: The median age was 61 yr (range, 18–93 yr; IQR, 45–73), and 63.7% of the patients were
Male: The median level of NT-pro-BNP on ICU admission was 1736 pg/mL (range, 8.8–264,893.0 pg/mL; IQR, 551.9–6,448.0pg/mL), and the median APACHE II score was 21 (range, 17–26). The 28-day mortality rate was 45.6%. The 28-day survivors did not show significantly different levels of NT-pro-BNP from non-survivors (1034 pg/mL [range, 275–4,278 pg/mL] vs. 2,947 pg/mL [795–14,539 pg/mL]. In prediction of 28-day mortality, the area under the curve (AUC) for NT-pro-BNP was 0.66 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59–0.74) and APACHE II score was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.61–0.75). AUC was increased little when NT-pro-BNP was combined with APACHE II is minimal and likely no different to APACHE II alone.
Conclusions: There was no significant difference in the level of NT-pro-BNP between survivors and non-survivors in a non-surgical cohort of critically ill patients. Moreover, there was little additional power in predicting 28-day mortality when combining NT-pro-BNP with APACHE II score.
- Copyright ©ERS 2015
