Description

Kucher et al used serum pro-brain natriuretic peptide (proBNP) and troponin T concentrations to evaluate patients after acute pulmonary embolism. The authors are from the University Hospital in Bern, Switzerland.


 

Adverse events tracked:

(1) in-hospital death

(2) cardiopulmonary resuscitation

(3) mechanical ventilation

(4) requirement for pressor therapy

(5) thrombolysis

(6) surgical embolectomy

(7) catheter fragmentation

 

Parameters:

(1) proBNP as measured on the Elecsys 2010 immunoassay analyzer from Roche (upper limit of normal reference range 334 pg/mL as given on page 1578).

(2) troponin T by the Elecsys Troponin T Stat immunoassay from Roche (normal range < 0.01 ng/mL)

 

ProBNP Level

Clinical Implications

< 500 pg/mL

low risk for complications

>= 500 pg/mL

intermediate to high risk for complications

 

where:

• The cutoff point of 500 pg/mL was determined by ROC curve analysis. This corresponds to 1.5 times the upper limit of normal.

 

Tropinin T Level

Clinical Implications

< 0.01 ng/mL

low risk

0.01 to 0.099 ng/mL

intermediate risk

>= 0.1 ng/mL

high risk for death and serious adverse events

 

where:

• Patients with elevated troponin T levels were at increased risk for early death from right ventricular failure.

• The cutoff of 0.1 ng/mL would be 10 times the upper limit of the normal reference range.

 

Differential diagnosis: Need to exclude myocardial infarction with congestive heart failure.

 

Performance:

• The negative predictive value for complications with a proBNP < 500 was 97% with a sensitivity of 95%, so the test was useful for excluding complications. The positive predictive value was 45% with a specificity of 57%, or about a 50-50 chance.

• The negative predictive value for a troponin T < 0.01 ng/mL was 91% with a sensitivity of 80%.

• The negative predictive value for a troponin T < 0.1 ng/mL was 89% while the positive predictive value for >= 0.1 ng/mL was 70%.

 

Limitations:

• The findings need to be confirmed by more extensive testing.

 

Implementation Note: The following table might be one way to combine both tests to classify risk. This needs to be verified.

 

pro BNP

Troponin T

Risk of Adverse Event

< 500 pg/mL

< 0.1 ng/mL

low risk

< 500 pg/mL

>= 0.1 ng/mL

intermediate risk

>= 500 pg/mL

< 0.1 ng/mL

intermediate risk

>= 500 pg/mL

>= 0.1 ng/mL

high risk

 


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