Analytical performance and diagnostic accuracy of immunometricassays for the measurement of plasma BNP and NT-proBNP concentrations.

Over the last 5 years, several immunoassay methods for the measurement of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and N-terminal proBNP (NT-proBNP) became commercially available. Recent studies have confirmed the clinical usefulness of measurements of these cardiac natriuretic peptides for the prognostic stratification of patients with congestive heart failure, for the detection of left ventricular systolic and/or diastolic dysfunction, and for the differential diagnosis of dyspnea (1-4). However, to answer the most urgent requests of current clinical practice and to allow widespread use of BNP and NT-proBNP assays, some key issues had to be solved, such as increasing the sensitivity, precision, and experimental practicability (5 ). The aim of the present study was to evaluate and compare the analytical and clinical performance of five commercial natriuretic peptide immunoassays.