Aminoterminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide and ventricular filling pressures in heart transplant recipients

We tested the hypothesis that, in heart transplant recipients, plasma aminoterminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) dosage is useful for diagnosis of high ventricular loading pressures in the absence of systolic dysfunction. We studied 60 consecutive transplanted heart recipients without systolic dysfunction at 1 to 16 years after transplantation. We found that, in these patients with frequent high ventricular filling pressures, plasma NT-proBNP was highly correlated with creatininemia and not correlated with ventricular loading pressures. These results do not support the hypothesis that NT-proBNP is useful for diagnosis of isolated diastolic dysfunction in transplanted heart recipients.