Les peptides natriurétiques de type B

Summary B-type natriuretic peptides (brain natriuretic peptide [BNP] and its aminoterminal precursor fragment NT-pro-BNP) have become important diagnostic tools for assessing patients with heart failure. Age, body mass index and renal function of the patients, as well as biological variability of these markers must be taken into account when analysing both BNP and NT-pro-BNP levels. BNP, the biologically active form, is easily degraded in vitro and pre-analytical cautions are necessary. It is now recognized that rather than a 1:1 secretion of BNP and NT-pro-BNP, a mixture of cleaved and uncleaved pro-BNP, is present in the circulation in more or less degraded forms. The lack of natriuretic peptide assay standardization is linked to the variable cross reactivity of this heterogeneous form in the commercial immunoassays.