Summary
Fifty percent of patients who experience death or develop heart failure after acute
coronary syndromes (ACS) have extremely elevated concentrations of plasma B-type natriuretic
peptides. These elevations, however, seem not to reflect permanent ventricular dysfunction
or heart failure and are assumed to exist already at the onset of ischemic symptoms.
The underlying mechanisms of BNP/Nt-proBNP elevations in patients withACS are still
not known at present. Furthermore, the relationship of elevated BNP/Nt-proBNP with
mortality but not with atherothrombotic complications of underlying disease makes
it difficult to choose optimal therapeutic strategies based on plasma levels of these
peptides. The remarkably high short- and long-term mortality rate associated with
increases of BNP/Nt-proBNP elevations clearly show the need of further investigation
to focus on this high-risk group of patients in order to clarify underlying pathomechanisms
and to find optimal therapeutic approaches.
Keywords
B-type natriuretic peptides - acute coronary syndromes