IBMS delegates flocked to hear a presentation about cardiac marker B-type natriuretic peptide last month
It was standing room only at Bayer's seminar on the new cardiac marker B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP), held at the IBMS Congress on 30 September.
Delegates flocked to hear a presentation about BNP's role in both the diagnosis and prognostic assessment of heart failure, as well as its potential for use in the monitoring of therapy.
Roy Sherwood, consultant biochemist from King's College Hospital, London, described the excellent performance of the FDA-approved BNP method which has recently been introduced by Bayer Diagnostics (a division of Bayer Healthcare) for use on the company's automated immunoassay analyser, Advia Centaur.
He also outlined the arguments favouring use of this convenient blood plasma test as a reliable rule-out marker for heart failure.
Delegates learned that without BNP testing, implementation of National Service Framework guidelines for the diagnosis of heart failure would inevitably lengthen waiting lists for echocardiography.
However, use of the 18-minute Advia Centaur BNP test as an initial rule-out marker would alleviate the problem of patients having to wait for up to six months to undergo echocardiography, only to find in many cases that their symptoms are not cardiac-related. This would not only save the cost of unnecessary referrals, but also enhance patient care by enabling other diagnostic investigations to be implemented without delay.
Dr Sherwood added that the efficacy of the BNP test is now well documented in key cardiology journals including Circulation and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).
In addition, use of BNP in the diagnosis of heart failure has been recommended by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the UK, as well as the European Society of Cardiologists (ESC).
He went on to illustrate the health economics argument in favour of BNP by contrasting the typical total cost of echocardiography and an out patient appointment (£250-£1200) with overall laboratory costs for BNP testing at £30-£40 per patient.
Laboratories need to liaise actively with their local PCTs about commissioning this test, he said.
Posters and papers on the subject of BNP testing were made available to all seminar delegates.
Copies of these are available to Laboratorytalk readers.
