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LettersNovel biomarkers for the diagnosis of acute destabilised heart failure in patients with shortness of breath
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Correspondence to Dr S S Achanta, Rangaraya Medical College, Dno 69-3-33/2 us Rajucolony Gigolupadujn, Kakinada, India; achantasri@rediffmail.com
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To the editor: It is known that emergency doctors misdiagnose heart failure in about 40% of cases and these patients have a high mortality rate of around 21%. The novel biomarkers such as the BNP assay significantly improve the accuracy of diagnosis of acute heart failure in patients presenting to the emergency department with dyspnoea.1 2 At the cut-off point of 100 pg/ml, BNP has a sensitivity of 90% but the specificity is only 73%. Even though this study showed that the addition of MR-proANP produces no clinically relevant increase in diagnostic accuracy, the combination of other biomarkers like MR ANP may significantly increase the diagnostic power in conditions such as renal dysfunction, obesity, and in the elderly and those with oedema, as B type peptides can cause some problems in these conditions. The BACH trial has clearly shown that the multimarker approach to the diagnosis of heart failure is
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Heart 2009 95: 1627.[Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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