BNP level predicts bleeding event in patients with heart failure after percutaneous coronary intervention

This study aimed to investigate the association between heart failure (HF) severity measured based on brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels and future bleeding events after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

The Academic Research Consortium for High Bleeding Risk presents a bleeding risk assessment for antithrombotic therapy in patients after PCI. HF is a risk factor for bleeding in Japanese patients.

Using an electronic medical record-based database with seven tertiary hospitals in Japan, this retrospective study included 7160 patients who underwent PCI between April 2014 and March 2020 and who completed a 3-year follow-up and were divided into three groups: no HF, HF with high BNP level and HF with low BNP level. The primary outcome was bleeding events according to the Global Use of Streptokinase and t-PA for Occluded Coronary Arteries classification of moderate and severe bleeding. The secondary outcome was major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE). Furthermore, thrombogenicity was measured using the Total Thrombus-Formation Analysis System (T-TAS) in 536 consecutive patients undergoing PCI between August 2013 and March 2017 at Kumamoto University Hospital.

Multivariate Cox regression showed that HF with high BNP level was significantly associated with bleeding events, MACE and all-cause death. In the T-TAS measurement, the thrombogenicity was lower in patients with HF with high BNP levels than in those without HF and with HF with low BNP levels.

HF with high BNP level is associated with future bleeding events, suggesting that bleeding risk might differ depending on HF severity.