Objectives: heart failure is primarily a disease of somewhat old people.Objectives: heart failure is primarily a disease of somewhat old people. Current guidelines suggest all patients with suspected heart failure should suffer objective assessment, usually by echocardiography. In the UK resources are limited and not all patients have access to echocardiography. The electrocardiogram is widely used as a pre-screening investigation. lately the natriuretic peptides have been shown to correlate well with left ventricular function, and evidence is accumulating which hints that B-type natriuretic peptide may have a part in detecting cardiovascular disease. somewhat old patients attending day hospital frequently have non-specific cardiovascular symptoms. B-type natriuretic peptide measurement in parallel with conventional electrocardiogram, may present a novel method of identifying those with significant cardiac disease, which may warrant treatment. This inquiry assessed the role of B-type natriuretic peptide and electrocardiogram in the detection of cardiac disease in patients attending Day Hospital. COPYRIGHT 2002 Oxford University Press |
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