An 80-year-old patient arrives in the emergency room complaining of difficulty breathing with signs of pulmonary edema. The clinician orders a B-type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) test to be performed on the patient

The test result shows 800 pg/ml. What is the patient's possible condition?
a. Severe heart failure
b. Respiratory distress syndrome
c. Severe sepsis
d. Mild heart failure

ANS: A
B-type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) is a substance secreted by the heart in response to increased stretch in the cardiac muscle. The BNP test is used primarily to evaluate patients for heart failure, particularly those who present to the emergency department with dyspnea and pulmonary ede-ma.4 In general, values greater than 300 pg/ml are indicative of mild heart failure whereas values in excess of 600 and 900 pg/ml are found in patients with moderate and severe heart failures, re-spectively.