Natriuretic peptides in acute pulmonary embolism: a systematic review

Patients with pulmonary embolism (PE) have a high risk of death, and it is important to recognize factors associated with higher mortality. Recently, several biomarkers have been studied for risk stratification in patients with PE.

Evaluate the available evidence on (a) the accuracy of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) for the diagnosis of right ventricular dysfunction and (b) their value as a prognostic factor of all-cause in-hospital or short-term mortality in patients with PE.

MEDLINE, Embase, and citation review of relevant primary and review articles.

We selected studies evaluating the accuracy of BNP or NT-proBNP for the diagnosis of right ventricular dysfunction. We also selected studies that reported data on BNP or NT-proBNP as a predictor of short-term mortality in patients with PE.

Sixteen studies met our inclusion criteria. The pooled diagnostic odds ratio for the diagnosis of right ventricular dysfunction in pulmonary embolism was 39.45 (95% CI; 15.54-100.12) and 24.73 (95% CI 2.02-302.37) for BNP and NT-proBNP, respectively. The pooled odds ratio for all-cause in-hospital or short-term mortality was 6 (95% CI 1.31-27.43; p: 0.021) and 16.12 (95% CI 3.1-83.68; p: 0.001) for BNP (cutoff: 100 pg/ml) and NT-proBNP (cutoff: 600 ng/L), respectively.

The results of this meta-analysis indicate that BNP and NT-proBNP are associated with the diagnosis of right ventricular dysfunction (RVD) in patients with an acute PE and are significant predictors of all-cause in-hospital or short-term mortality in these patients.