Chronic heart failure treatment benefits from pro-BNP-directed therapy.

摘要

The PROTECT study,1 which was undertaken to evaluate the benefits of tailoring heart failure therapy according to NT-proBNP levels, was stopped early at the midpoint of the trial due to the early benefits of this targeted biomarker approach. Initially, the study planned to recruit 300 patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II-IV systolic heart failure [left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < 40%] but was stopped after only 151 patients were recruited.All the PROTECT patients received standard-of-care heart failure therapy, with clinically guided up-titration of medication, while 75 patients had their therapy adjusted to drive levels of ammo-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) down to the pre-specified target of <1000pg/ml.