Macarena Garcia Gozalo, Amish Jain, Dany E. Weisz, Bonny Jasani
La Paz University Hospital. Mount Sinai Hospital. University of Toronto. Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Hospital for Sick Children.
Spain and Canada
Journal of Perinatology
J Perinatol 2025;
DOI: 10.1038/s41372-025-02462-3
Abstract
Objective: To evaluate the utility of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT pro-BNP) for screening and diagnosis of chronic pulmonary hypertension (cPH) in extremely low gestational age neonates (ELGANs < 28 weeks gestational age [GA]).
Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study analyzing paired echocardiogram results and serum NT pro-BNP concentrations (ng/L) in ELGANs. The accuracy of NT pro-BNP for diagnosing cPH and determining the optimal cut-off for cPH screening and diagnosis was evaluated using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves and Youden’s index, respectively.
Results: Among the 35 included ELGANs, the area under the ROC curve for diagnosing cPH using NT pro-BNP levels combined with GA < 25 weeks and BPD was 0.70 (95% CI: 0.51-0.89). An NT pro-BNP value of 1129 showed a sensitivity of 85%, while a value of 2674 demonstrated a specificity of 95%, indicating its potential role in screening and diagnosing cPH.
Conclusions: NT pro-BNP is a promising biomarker for screening and diagnosing cPH in ELGANs.
Category
Class III. Pulmonary Hypertension Associated with Lung Disease
Heart Dysfunction Associated with Pulmonary Vascular Disease (Right)
Potential Biomarkers Associated with Pulmonary Vascular Disease
Age Focus: Pediatric Pulmonary Vascular Disease
Fresh or Filed Publication: Fresh (PHresh). Less than 1-2 years since publication
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