Exponential increase in clinical use of plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) assays

To document the number of requests by clinicians for plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) measurements and to define which groups of practitioners have made use of the assay over the 7 years since it became available for clinical use.

We reviewed the number and source of requests by clinicians for measurements of plasma BNP in the Christchurch area (from 1995--when the assay became available, until July 2002).

There was an exponential increase in requests for BNP measurements over the 7-year period (1995-2002). Of the 11,308 samples analysed, 47% came from hospital inpatients, 25.9% from patients in general practice, and 14% from hospital emergency departments.

There has been a rapidly increasing uptake of the assay for plasma BNP by both hospital and primary care clinicians in the Christchurch area.