Reduction in heart hormone may improve heart diseases

New York, Nov 13 (IANS) Did you recently witnessed symptoms of cardiac arrest? A reduced level of common heart hormone might save you from visiting the doctor next time.

A reduction in the level of a common hormone called B-type natriuretic peptide or BNP produced in the heart can significantly lower the rates of heart failure and minimise the risk of mortality among heart patients, reveals a new study.

Heart failure is a chronic condition in which the heart is unable to pump blood with normal efficiency.

Patients with lower hormone levels had a 30 per cent less rate of readmission to the hospital compared to those without a reduction, along with a 54 per cent lower mortality rate, the researchers noted.

"The relative changes in BNP may help physicians determine which patients could benefit from advanced medical therapies or screening for end-of-life care," said Jose Benuzillo, researcher at the Intermountain Medical Centre Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The researchers analyzed 6,887 heart patients who were recently discharged from hospitals. All the patients had a 30-day readmission rate of 21.1 per cent and a 30-day mortality rate of 12.8 per cent.

But patients with reduced levels of BNP had a readmission rate of just 16.1 per cent and a mortality rate of 7.1 per cent after 30 days.

Reduction in BNP among the heart failure patients was determined by calculating the relative difference in BNP levels between the newly admitted patients in hospital and the discharged ones.

Some 19 per cent of the patients in the study had serial measurements, says the findings, presented at the Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association 2017 in California.

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