The Journal of heart and lung transplantation : the official publication of the International Society for Heart Transplantation
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J. Heart Lung Transplant. · Oct 2004
Aminoterminal pro type B natriuretic peptide as a predictive and prognostic marker in patients with chronic heart failure.
B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is released from the cardiac ventricles in response to increased wall tension. We studied the relation of NT-proBNP to Heart Failure Survival Score (HFSS) and New York Heart Association (NYHA) class in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). We also studied the impact for recipient selection for cardiac transplant and assessed it as a predictive and prognostic marker of CHF. ⋯ NT-proBNP discriminates patients at high likelihood of being a candidate for transplantation and provides prognostic informations in patients with CHF. NT-proBNP levels above 5000 pg/ml at admission were associated with death, and these levels markedly discriminated candidates for left ventricular assist devices or urgent transplantation.
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J. Heart Lung Transplant. · Oct 2004
Ventilatory response to exercise and kinetics of oxygen recovery are similar in cardiac transplant recipients and patients with mild chronic heart failure.
Exercise capacity, assessed by cardiopulmonary exercise treadmill testing (CPET), does not return to normal following heart transplantation. This study evaluated the ventilatory response to exercise and the kinetics of oxygen (O(2)) recovery in heart transplant recipients (HTR) compared to healthy volunteers (HV) and heart failure patients. ⋯ Exercise intolerance and delayed O(2) recovery kinetics were only partially reversed after heart transplantation. This finding suggests that some of the pathophysiologic mechanisms of heart failure persist after heart transplantation.