Clinical significance of the measurements of plasma N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide levels in patients with coronary artery disease who have undergone elective drug-eluting stent implantation

SummaryBackgroundN-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is a diagnostic biomarker for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). However, the clinical significance of measurements of NT-proBNP levels in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) who have undergone drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation has not been fully elucidated.Methods and resultsWe recruited 280 patients with documented CAD who were scheduled for elective coronary intervention and also age- and gender-matched 140 healthy subjects. Subjects with acute coronary syndrome, ongoing CHF, and stage IV or V chronic kidney disease were excluded. We measured the plasma NT-proBNP levels and followed the CAD patients who have undergone DES implantation for up to 62 months until occurrence of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Plasma NT-proBNP levels were significantly higher in CAD patients compared to control subjects (p < 0.0001). In the CAD group, 25 patients developed MACE and the NT-proBNP levels in the MACE group were significantly higher compared to that in the non-MACE group (p = 0.005). After adjusting for the confounding factors, high NT-proBNP levels were observed to be independent factors for CAD (p < 0.0001) and MACE (p = 0.021).ConclusionsThese results demonstrated that the measurements of NT-proBNP levels may be useful in identifying high-risk subjects among CAD patients who have undergone elective DES implantation.