B-type natriuretic peptide efficacy compared to fragmented QRS for diastolic dysfunction screening in patients with...

Early diagnosis of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) is essential for preventing heart failure. B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) is a viable marker for predicting LVDD, as elevated BNP levels have been associated with worsening LVDD in patients with diabetes over time. However, the utility of BNP as a diagnostic marker in diabetes is controversial, as BNP levels are often low in overweight individuals.

To examine the effectiveness of BNP levels and fragmented QRS (fQRS) on electrocardiography for diagnosing LVDD in patients with type 2 diabetes.

This retrospective cohort study included 303 patients with type 2 diabetes (67.4 ± 12.3 years old) with preserved ejection fraction (EF) ≥ 50% admitted to Toyama University Hospital for glycemic management and comorbidity evaluation between November 2017 and April 2021. All participants underwent plasma BNP measurement, electrocardiography, and echocardiography. Cardiologists who were blinded to the BNP results assessed the electrocardiograms and echocardiograms. Subgroup analyses were conducted for overweight individuals.

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis determined optimal BNP cut-off values of 34.8 pg/mL and 7.2 pg/mL for diagnosing LVDD in non-overweight [area under the ROC curve (AUC): 0.70] and overweight (AUC: 0.55) groups, respectively (P = 0.040). In the overweight subgroup, fQRS showed greater diagnostic accuracy for LVDD (AUC: 0.67), indicating moderate diagnostic utility compared with the low performance of the BNP cutoff of 35 pg/mL (AUC: 0.52) (P = 0.010). Multivariate analyses confirmed that fQRS was superior to BNP for LVDD diagnosis regardless of the patient's weight.

A BNP level ≥ 35 pg/mL in non-overweight individuals may be a reliable LVDD marker. Additionally, fQRS was more effective than BNP in diagnosing LVDD irrespective of the patient's weight. fQRS can complement BNP in the early detection of LVDD, especially in overweight patients, potentially improving early detection and mitigating progression to heart failure with preserved EF in patients with type 2 diabetes.