Clinical Chemistry AACC Online Job Center
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Clinical Chemistry 52: 1415-1419, 2006. First published May 11, 2006; 10.1373/clinchem.2005.060608
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
clinchem.2005.060608v1
52/7/1415    most recent
Right arrow Submit an electronic Letter to
the Editor about this paper
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when eLetters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (3)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hammerer-Lercher, A.
Right arrow Articles by Sommer, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Hammerer-Lercher, A.
Right arrow Articles by Sommer, R.
Related Collections
Right arrow Pediatric Clinical Chemistry
Right arrow Proteomics and Protein Markers
(Clinical Chemistry. 2006;52:1415-1419.)
© 2006 American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc.

Pediatric Clinical Chemistry

Utility of N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide to Differentiate Cardiac Diseases from Noncardiac Diseases in Young Pediatric Patients

Angelika Hammerer-Lercher1,a, Ralf Geiger2, Johannes Mair3, Christoph Url2, Gerald Tulzer4, Evelyn Lechner4, Bernd Puschendorf1 and Rudolf Sommer5

1 Division of Clinical Biochemistry, Innsbruck Biocenter, and 2 Departments of Pediatrics, Clinical Division of Pediatric Cardiology, and 3 Internal Medicine, Clinical Division of Cardiology, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria.
4 Department of Pediatric Cardiology, Pediatric Center, Linz, Austria.
5 Department of Clinical Laboratory and Blood Depot, Gynaecologic and Pediatric District Hospital, Linz, Austria.

aAddress correspondence to this author at: Division of Clinical Biochemistry, Innsbruck Biocenter, Medical University, Fritz-Pregl-Strasse 3, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria. Fax 43-512-507-2876; e-mail Angelika.Lercher{at}uibk.ac.at.

Background: Previous studies comparing children with cardiac disease with children with lung disease or healthy children indicated that natriuretic peptides are promising markers in pediatric patients. The aim of this study was to further clarify the diagnostic usefulness of N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) measurements in a less preselected population of children younger than 3 years, a population in which clinical symptoms are frequently unspecific.

Methods: NT-proBNP concentrations (Roche Diagnostics) were measured in sera of 142 pediatric patients (age range, 33–1070 days) presenting at the Gynaecologic and Pediatric Hospital (Linz, Austria) between January 2003 and January 2004. ROC curve analysis for the diagnostic performance of NT-proBNP, the Mann–Whitney U-test for group comparison, and linear regression analysis for influencing factors were performed.

Results: NT-proBNP concentrations were significantly increased in infants with cardiac diseases [median (25th–75th percentile), 3681 (1045–13557) ng/L; n = 23] compared with infants with other diseases [241 (116–542) ng/L; n = 119], and ROC analysis revealed good performance for NT-proBNP in differentiating between infants with and without cardiac diseases [mean area under the curve (AUC) with 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.87 (0.76–0.94)]. A subgroup analysis of exactly age- and sex-matched infants was performed, which revealed results comparable to those for the whole study population [mean (95% CI) AUC, 0.84 (0.68–0.93)].

Conclusion: In a heterogeneous group of pediatric patients <3 years of age, NT-proBNP showed good diagnostic performance to distinguish between cardiac diseases and various noncardiac diseases.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2006 by the American Association for Clinical Chemistry.