Is There A Correlation Between Left Atrium Diameter and NT-ProBNP Levels in Resistant Hypertension?

Abstract

Objectives: Resistant hypertension (RHT) definesuncontrolled blood pressure despite appropriate treatmentand identifies a high-risk population, which may benefitfrom different diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Thisstudy has investigated the relationship between left atrialdiameter (LAD) and N-terminal por-brain type natriureticpeptide (NT-proBNP) levels in true RHT patients withsinus rhythm.Materials and Methods: The outpatient data ofKemalpaşa State Hospital’s cardiology clinic has beenreviewed retrospectively. The patients with RHT areincluded but patients with secondary hypertension, pseudoRHT, atrial fibrillation and left ventricle ejection fraction<50% are excluded from analysis. Age and gender specificcut-off levels have been used for NT-proBNP.Results: Among 74 true RHT patients, 48 were female.The mean age was 61.9±11.2 years. Mean LAD was40.9±4.0 mm and mean NT-proBNP was 330.3±394.9 pg/mL. Larger LAD was correlated to higher levels of NTproBNP (r=0.451, p<0.001). Even after controlling for age,gender, heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures,partial correlation was continued between LAD and NTproBNP (r=0.234, d.f=67, p<0,05).Conclusion: The current study showed that larger LADis related to higher levels of NT-proBNP in RHT, whichmay allow us to use simple echocardiographic parameterto diagnose high-risk patients and hypervolemia instead ofNT-proBNP, an expensive biomarker. Because of singlecenter results and limited number of patients, further studiesare needed.