The detection of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in hypertensive patients: Performance of N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide

Aim. Diastolic dysfunction (DD) results in increased cardiovascular risk in hypertensives. We studied the performance of N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in detecting DD. Materials and methods. 241 hypertensive patients admitted to cardiology polyclinics were included in this study. They were grouped according to the presence of DD. Group 1: Essential hypertensive patients without DD (n=119); group 2: essential hypertensive patients with DD (n=122). All underwent trans-thoracic echocardiography for the evaluation of transvalvular flow, morphology, left ventricular wall motion abnormalities and ejection fraction. NT-proBNP levels were measured by an electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Results. The systolic blood pressure (BP) (mean +/- SD) was 140 +/- 12 mmHg in group 1 and 144 +/- 16 mmHg in group 2 (p=0.049), the diastolic BP (mean +/- SD) was 88 +/- 10 mmHg in group 1 and 90 +/- 14 mmHg in group 2 (p=0.043). The median (1st-3rd quartile) NT-proBNP level in group 2 was significantly higher than group 1 [121.05 (61.03-207.66) and 31.17 (17.07-54.09) pg/ml, respectively (p<0.001)]. In the receiver operating characteristics analysis, the area under the curve was 0.862 (95% CI 0.816-0.908). At the cut-off of 45 pg/ml, sensitivity was 86.9%, specificity was 62.4%, and at the cut-off 65 pg/ml, sensitivity was 74.6%, specificity was 83.8%. Conclusion. Plasma NT-proBNP levels may be useful for identifying patients with DD and it is conceivable to use a cut-off level 65 pg/ml as a "rule in" test.