Brain natriuretic peptide is a potentially useful screening tool for the detection of cardiovascular disease in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

When the heart is burning: Amino-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide as an early marker of cardiac involvement in active autoimmune rheumatic disease

“…As far as rheumatic arthritis is concerned, the aggregation with psoriatic arthritis and the small number of patients (eleven) may explain the lack of any relationships with both inflammatory markers and echocardiographic parameters, which is in discordance with the observations made in other studies [32,33]. On the other hand, even if in systemic sclerosis the pathogenic process targets not only the skin but also internal organs, it is a multistep process which involves sequentially or concomitantly different mechanisms such as fibrosis, vascular dysfunction, activation of the immune system and inflammation.…”

N-terminal prohormone brain natriuretic peptide: a biomarker for detecting cardiovascular risks in patients with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis?

“…The increase of NT-proBNP .125 pg/ml in many patients with no diagnosis of CV disease so far (30% in disease RA and 43% in patients with OA) could indicate that screening for CV risk in patients with RA and OA has to be performed more carefully, possibly by employing NT-proBNP as a marker, as suggested by others. 5 In summary, this study on patients with RA and OA suggests that increased NT-proBNP levels across all age groups and gender could help to single out cardiologically asymptomatic individuals, possibly at risk for CV events. Thus, this marker could be a valuable tool for risk assessment before the initiation of coxib or NSAID treatment, and for early identification of patients with rheumatic diseases requiring preventive CV treatment.…”

“…1 There is preliminary evidence that the serum levels of NT-proBNP in these patients reflect this burden. 5 Recently, we observed that the use of NSAIDs and coxibs goes along with CV-unwanted drug effects in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) with elevated NT-proBNP values. We analysed the NT-proBNP values in patients with RA (n = 240) and OA (n = 69) and compared the results with those of healthy, age and gendermatched blood donors (n = 2264).…”

Tumour necrosis factor blockade reduces circulating N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide levels in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis: results from a prospective cohort study

“…Circulating levels of NT-proBNP are higher in patients with RA than in control subjects, which may be a reflection of the presence of atherosclerotic disease and/or subclinical cardiac stress and mechanical stretch which may progress to overt HF 18 31. Traditional CV risk factors do not explain the excess CV burden in the RA population, and RA-specific risk factors such as systemic inflammation32–34 have been implicated in the excess CV risk in this population.…”