• J Nowak, B Hudzik, J Niedziela, P Rozentryt, M Zembala, and M Gąsior.
• 3rd Department of Cardiology, School of Medicine with the Division of Dentistry in Zabrze, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Silesian Centre for Heart Disease, Zabrze, Poland. Electronic address: nowjola@wp.pl.
• Transplant. Proc. 2018 Sep 1; 50 (7): 2044-2047.

BackgroundSerum N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) concentration is elevated in patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH); however, its role in the detection of PH associated with lung disease is not well established.AimThe aim of this study was to assess the value of NT-proBNP in the detection of PH in patients with end-stage lung disease (esLD) referred for lung transplantation.Materials And MethodsThe study population consisted of 65 patients: 37 with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), 20 with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and 8 patients with other interstitial lung diseases (75% men, mean age 53.3 ± 9.5 years). Serum concentration of NT-proBNP was assessed with an immunoradiometric assay kit. The mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) was measured using a Swan-Ganz catheter. PH was defined as mPAP ≥ 25 mm Hg.ResultsMedian NT-proBNP concentrations were significantly higher in patients with PH than in patients without PH: 139 (49-1236) pg/mL vs 67 (38-116) pg/mL, respectively; P = .016. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that NT-proBNP concentration higher than 131.5 pg/mL was a predictor of PH with good specificity (81%) and positive predictive value (78.9%) but low sensitivity (55.6%) and negative predictive value (58.6%). The area under the ROC curve of serum NT-proBNP concentration for PH was 0.71 (95% confidence interval 0.57-0.85, P = .039).ConclusionSerum concentration of NT-proBNP may be useful in the diagnosis of PH in patients with esLD referred for lung transplantation.Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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