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Correspondence

Why Does the Preoperative BNP Level Predict the Degree of Postoperative BNP Elevation?

^a First Department of Surgery, University of Toyama, Graduate School of Medicine, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194, Japan
^b Department of Cardiovascular Surgery and Cardiac Transplantation, Hôpital Cardiovasculaire et pneumologique Louis Pradel, 28 Ave du Doyen Lepine, Bron, 69500 France
^c Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44195
^d First Department of Surgery, University of Toyama, Graduate School of Medicine, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama, 930-0194, Japan

(Email: ynaoki@med.u-toyama.ac.jp; roland.henaine@chu-lyon.fr; otakiy@ccf.org).

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

To the Editor:

We read with great interest the article by Mainwaring and associates [1] concerning the changes in perioperative brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels in infants and children with ventricular septal defect (VSD). They demonstrated three important findings in their study. First, there was a close correlation between the preoperative levels of BNP and the amount of left-to-right shunt (Qp/Qs) through the VSD. Second, all of the patients demonstrated significant elevations in the postoperative BNP. Third, the degree of postoperative elevation in the BNP was correlated with the relative increase in the preoperative BNP and Qp/Qs. They concluded that the severity . . . [Full Text of this Article]