Lung US and BNP

SCANCRIT

LUNG US AND BNP

SCANCRIT - Posted on January 18, 2016

"A small study in Ann Intensive Care reminds me that lung ultrasound is good at detecting heart failure and differentiating against other causes of acute dyspnoea...

The present study tries to correlate B-profile on US with another marker of heart failure, pro-BNP which is produced by overstretched cardiomyocytes when left ventricle filling pressure is increased.

Take home message

The European Society of Cardiology recommends using natriuretic peptide to rule out acute heart failure with reasonably high sensitivity albeit with low specificity. The sensitivity and specificity for lung US in detecting elevated pro-BNP indicative of heart failure is 92% and 91%."

Study lives here (free!):

Ann Intensive Care. 2015 Dec;5(1):56. doi: 10.1186/s13613-015-0100-x. Epub 2015 Dec 30. Sonographic chest B-lines anticipate elevated B-type natriuretic peptide level, irrespective of ejection fraction. Bitar Z1, Maadarani O2, Almerri K3.