B-type natriuretic peptide as a marker of resuscitation in patients with cardiac arrest outside the hospital.

BACKGROUND: Although the circulating concentration of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) has both a prognostic and diagnostic value in heart disease, no data are available regarding its resuscitative value for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

METHODS AND RESULTS: The present study was a prospective study of 401 patients whose BNP was measured on arrival at the emergency room after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with a cardiac cause. The primary endpoint was survival to hospital discharge. The unadjusted rate of survival to hospital discharge decreased in a stepwise fashion among patients in increasing quartiles of BNP concentration (p<0.001). After adjusting for independent predictors of resuscitation, the odds ratios for survival to hospital discharge in the second, third and fourth quartiles of BNP were 0.13 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.04-0.46), 0.10 (95% CI, 0.03-0.41), and 0.004 (95% CI, 0.00-0.16), respectively. The BNP cutoff value of 100 pg/ml for survival had a sensitivity of 83% and a negative predictive value of 96%.

CONCLUSIONS: The measurement of BNP was found to provide valuable predictive information for survival to hospital discharge in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest of cardiac etiology.