Atlanta—Researchers speaking at the American College of Cardiology meeting here last month said the measurement of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) in patients thought to have congestive heart failure (CHF) has high diagnostic accuracy and should be included in US treatment guidelines for the disease, as it is in European ones.
Peter A. McCullough, MD, chief of cardiology at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Medicine, said that there is an epidemic of CHF in the United States: about 5 million Americans have the disease and 500 000 new cases are reported annually.
Each year about 3 million patients present to hospital emergency departments with symptoms of CHF, such as dyspnea. And in almost half the cases, the treating physician is unsure whether the symptoms are due to that disease, said the researchers.
McCullough said diagnosing CHF has fundamentally remained unchanged for decades, adding, "and the blood tests . . . [Full Text of this Article]
