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Clinical Chemistry 52: 1211-1213, 2006; 10.1373/clinchem.2006.067736
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(Clinical Chemistry. 2006;52:1211-1213.)
© 2006 American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc.

Letters to the Editor

N-Terminal Pro-B-Type Natriuretic Peptide and Echocardiographic Abnormalities in Severely Obese Patients: Correlation with Visceral Fat

Alexis E. Malavazos1, Lelio Morricone1, Alessandro Marocchi2, Federica Ermetici1, Bruno Ambrosi1 and Massimiliano M. Corsi3,a

1 Endocrinology Unit, Department of Medical and, Surgical Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
2 Institute of General Pathology, Laboratory of Clinical Pathology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
3 Policlinico San Donato IRCE, San Donato Milanese Italy, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Niguarda Ca’ Granda Hospital, Milan, Italy

aAddress correspondence to this author at: Institute of General Pathology, Laboratory of Clinical Pathology, University of Milan, Via L. Mangiagalli 31, Milan, I-20133, Italy. Fax 39-02-5031-5338; e-mail mmcorsi@unimi.it.

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.


To the Editor:

B-Type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and its co-released peptide N-terminal propeptide (NT-proBNP) are both secreted mainly by the left cardiac ventricle as a consequence of pressure overload and wall stretch. This situation often occurs in obesity, in which the amount of intraabdominal fat may worsen the severity of morphologic and dynamic cardiac abnormalities detectable by echocardiography (1).

Many studies have confirmed NT-proBNP as a sensitive marker for left ventricular hypertrophy and/or asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction (2)(3), and it is particularly reliable because of its high negative predictive value (4). To our knowledge, however, recent findings on the relationship between NT-proBNP and morphologic and dynamic cardiac abnormalities in obesity are still inconsistent and controversial. Rivera et al. (5) reported lower NT-proBNP concentrations in obese patients with heart failure compared with nonobese patients. Conversely, Hermann-Arnhof et al. (6) found that NT-proBNP concentrations were increased in obese individuals and were comparable to the values for New York Heart Association class I patients. Therefore, to . . . [Full Text of this Article]






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