Brain natriuretic peptide as a prognostic factor in COVID-19

Introduction

COVID-19 is a disease that affects the respiratory tract and can potentialy lead to multiple organ failure and death. Due to its the high mortality, different prognostic indexes have been proposed in order to indentify which patients are more prone to develope complications and death. We aimed to determine if BNP, wich is a peptide hormone used as an indicator of heart failure and as a prognostic factor in patients with septic shock, may be used as well as a prognostic factor in patients with COVID-19.

Materials and methods

A retrospective case-control study was carried out at a single medical center, including 100 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection diagnosed by PCR-RT. From the electronic clinical récords, data was obtained in order to compare survivors with the died patients in terms of blood BNP levels.

Results

Of the 100 patients studied, 50 were discharged home and 50 died during their hospital stay. There was a statistically significant difference between both groups regarding age, male gender, oxygen saturation, leukocyte and neutrophil count, lactic dehydrogenase, and C-reactive protein. Regarding BNP, it was found that a cut-off point > 32 pg/ml can be used as a predictor of in-hospital mortality (AUC 0.751) with a sensibility of 60% and sensitivity of 90%; as well as an odds ratio of 13.5 (95% CI; 4.6–39.9).

Discussion

An admission BNP level > 32 pg/ml is associated with a higher in-hospital mortality in patients with COVID-19 and can be considered as a prognostic factor for this disease.