The Association between Brain Natriuretic Peptide Level and Short-term Outcomes and Mortality in Patients with Stroke

Abstract

Background: Brain natriuretic peptide was first isolated in 1988 from porcine brain, then a similar substance (hormone) was discovered to be secreted by the heart ventricles cardio myocytes in response to stretch. A lot of debate is running for decades regarding its functions as an indicator of the type of pathology or prognostic outcome in strokr patients.Patients and methods: Twenty four men and twenty four women with admitted at Al Husssieni Teaching hospital within 12 hours of cerebrovascular accidents were investigated to evaluate NT-pro-BNP and troponin levels estimation as indicator for determining pathology type and prognosis in stroke patients.Results : The maen age mean age of the patients was 50.77 ±12.98 year. Two thirds of the patients had cerebral ischemia, 29% had intracranial hemorrhage and only 6% had sub-arachnoid hemorrhage. There was no significant difference in the mean Pro-BNP level between these three types of stroke and the mean was 29.62±17.10 ng/dl, 143.25±38.29 ng/dl and 179.65±32.27 ng/dl for sub-arachnoid hemorrhage, intra-cranial hemorrhage and cerebral ischemia, respectively. Similarly no significant gender difference was detected (p=.167), nor there was a difference between those who deceased (20.8%) and those who discharged a live (p=.726). The highest fatality rate differ significantly among different types of stroke, and was highest among those with sub-arachnoid hemorrhage (100%), modest anong patients with intra-cranial hemorrhage (50%), while the least was among those with ischemia (no death). The cardiac complications after stroke were explored, but these did not affect NTproBNP level significantly. Conclusions: brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) level was found not to be significantly different across the thtree main types of stroke. Its level was not affected by gender and it provides no progmostic importance for the fate or oucome after stroke.