Page 54 - Biomarkers for risk stratification and guidance in heart failure

Management of chronic heart failure guided by individual NT-proBNP targets.
Figure 2. Primary endpoint: number of days outside the hospital.
RESULTS
Baseline characteristics
In total, 345 patients were randomized: 174 patients to the NT-proBNP-guided treatment group and 171 patients to the clinically-guided group. Baseline characteristics are shown in Table 1, which did not reveal significant differences between the 2 study groups except for the number of transient ischemic attacks (4.6% in the NT-proBNP-guided vs. 14.6% in the clinically-guided group, p=0.002). Patients were elderly with a mean age of 72 years, more than 40% were female, and a large proportion had cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes mellitus. History of HF was present in 37% of subjects, and almost a quarter had a LVEF above 45%. After the index admission, most patients were in New York Heart Association functional class II at discharge. The median NT- proBNP target value in the NT-proBNP-guided treatment group was 2,491 pg/ml.
End points
The median follow-up was 702 days (IQR: 488 to 730 days). In 34 patients (17 in both randomization groups, see Fig. 1), outpatient follow-up visits after 1-year follow-up were not completed.
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