Brigitte Stanek

TL;DR: BNP levels are a strong, independent predictor of sudden death in patients with CHF, and Kaplan-Meier sudden death–free survival rates were significantly higher in patients below (99%) compared with patients above (81%) this cutoff point.

TL;DR: In advanced heart failure, plasma big endothelin-1 is strongly related to survival and appears to predict 1-year mortality better than hemodynamic variables and levels of atrial natriuretic peptide, an established neurohumoral prognostic marker in chronic heart failure.

TL;DR: In patients with advanced LV dysfunction receiving high-dose angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and beta-blocker therapy BNP and N-BNP plasma levels are both independently related to mortality, implying that they will likely emerge as a very useful blood test for detection of the progression of heart failure, even in the face of neurohumoral blocking therapy.

TL;DR: It is concluded that in patients with chronic heart failure who are stable on oral therapy measuring big ET-1 and ANP plasma levels may be a valuable noninvasive adjunct to improve the prognostic accuracy of detecting high risk patients compared with exercise testing alone.

TL;DR: Results suggest that endothelin A receptor blockade improves FMD in CHF patients, and improvement in the high-dose group, may have been masked by reduced vasodilator capacity due to a significant increase in vessel size.