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(Circulation. 2005;112:2077-2078.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

Issue Highlights

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF N-TERMINAL PRO–BRAIN NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC STABLE ANGINA, by Ndrepepa et al.

 
The heart has become an endocrine organ, and its hormones today are used for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. Brain natriuretic peptide is predictive for cardiac events and death in patients with heart failure, but its role in chronic stable angina is less clear. In their study, Gjin Ndrepepa et al report on plasma levels of NT-proBNP in more than a thousand patients with chronic stable angina with mortality as a primary end point. In their cohort, NT-proBNP levels were highly predictive for total and cardiovascular mortality. Interestingly, patients in the upper quartile of NT-proBNP had lower left ventricular ejection fraction and higher left ventricular end-diastolic pressure as well as more advanced coronary artery disease angiographically. In a multivaried analysis, NT-proBNP was the strongest of all analyzed parameters to predict mortality in these patients. Although patients with impaired left ventricular function do have higher levels of NT-proBNP, the cardiac hormone appears to provide prognostic information beyond hemodynamics. Although the mechanisms underlying this prognostic information are not yet clear, NT-proBNP has become an important prognostic marker for clinical practice, apparently in the entire spectrum of cardiovascular disease. See p 2102.

	POSTCONDITIONING THE HUMAN HEART, by Staat et al.

 
The existence of serious reperfusion-induced injury, resulting in significant cell death as opposed to temporary impairment of mechanical function (stunning), has long remained controversial. And if it were to exist, what could be done to lessen this added burden? Experimentalists have established that preconditioning the heart by repetitive brief episodes of reversible ischemia before the onset of a prolonged ischemic assault . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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