A new study, conducted by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City, has revealed that heart failure patients, who were discharged from the hospital after they showed a reduced level of a common hormone produced by the heart, had significantly lower rates of re-admission and mortality rate claimed researchers.
According to the researchers, patients who showed a reduction of the hormone called B-type natriuretic peptide, or BNP, had 30 percent less chance of getting hospitalised again within 30 days of their discharge. When compared to those with high BNP level, these patients also showed significant 54 percent lower mortality rate within the same time span.
The study took into account 6, 887 heart patients with heart failure and treated in any of the Intermountain Healthcare's 22 hospitals between 2014 and 2017.
"Previously there wasn't enough data in the medical literature that examined the benefit of conducting serial measurements of BNP and the relationship between reduced BNP rates and better outcomes," said lead author Jose Benuzillo, MS, who is also an outcomes analyst for Intermountain Healthcare's Cardiovascular Clinical program.
The decline in BNP hormone in heart patients is determined by measuring the difference in BNP levels when admitted and when discharged. Around 19 per cent of the heart patients in the study had serial measurement, said researchers.
"Further research is needed to understand which interventions caused the drop in levels of BNP, and which patients responded," said Benuzillo. He also said that his team hopes to determine the threshold level of BNP "at which better readmission and mortality outcomes are achieved".
How does heart failure occur? It happens when the heart fails to pump blood with normal efficiency. About 5.7 million American people are greatly affected by this chronic condition, according to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
