TY - JOUR T1 - NT-proBNP, race and endothelial function in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis JF - Heart JO - Heart SP - 1590 LP - 1596 DO - 10.1136/heartjnl-2019-314707 VL - 105 IS - 20 AU - Sushan Yang AU - Shi Huang AU - Lori B Daniels AU - Joseph Yeboah AU - Joao A C Lima AU - Valentina Cannone AU - John C Burnett Jr AU - Joshua A Beckman AU - J Jeffrey Carr AU - Thomas J Wang AU - Deepak K Gupta Y1 - 2019/10/01 UR - http://heart.bmj.com/content/105/20/1590.abstract N2 - Objective Natriuretic peptides (NPs) are hormones with cardioprotective effects. NP levels vary by race; however, the pathophysiological consequences of lower NP levels are not well understood. We aimed to quantify the association between NPs and endothelial function as measured by flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and the contribution of NP levels to racial differences in endothelial function.Methods In this cross-sectional study of 2938 Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis participants (34% Caucasian, 20% African-American, 20% Asian-American and 26% Hispanic) without cardiovascular disease at baseline, multivariable linear regression models were used to examine the association between serum N-terminal pro-B-type NP (NT-proBNP) and natural log-transformed FMD. We also tested whether NT-proBNP mediated the relationship between race and FMD using the product of coefficients method.Results Among African-American and Chinese-American individuals, lower NT-proBNP levels were associated with lower FMD, β=0.06 (95% CI: 0.03 to 0.09; p<0.001) and β=0.06 (95% CI: 0.02 to 0.09; p=0.002), respectively. Non-significant associations between NT-proBNP and FMD were found in Hispanic and Caucasian individuals. In multivariable models, endothelial function differed by race, with African-American individuals having the lowest FMD compared with Caucasians, p<0.001. Racial differences in FMD among African-Americans and Chinese-Americans were mediated in part by NT-proBNP levels (African-Americans, mediation effect: −0.03(95% CI: −0.05 to −0.01); Chinese-Americans, mediation effect: −0.03(95% CI: −0.05 to −0.01)).Conclusions Lower NP levels are associated with worse endothelial function among African-Americans and Chinese-Americans. A relative NP deficiency in some racial/ethnic groups may contribute to differences in vascular function. ER -