Bnp blood test what is it

The choice will depend on the equipment available in your provider's recommended laboratory. Other names: brain natriuretic peptide, NT-proB-type natriuretic peptide test, B-type natriuretic peptide.

If you've already been diagnosed with heart failure, the test may be used to:. These include:. If you are being treated for heart failure, your health care provider may order one of these tests to see how well your treatment is working. After the needle is inserted, a small amount of blood will be collected into a test tube or vial.

You may feel a little sting when the needle goes in or out. This usually takes less than five minutes. There is very little risk to having a blood test. You may have slight pain or bruising at the spot where the needle was put in, but most symptoms go away quickly. Effective therapy reduces the backup of blood in the heart. The heart chambers get smaller, and as the muscle cells recover from being stretched, they produce less BNP.

When doctors see falling BNP levels, they breathe a sigh of relief; more important, their patients breathe better. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.

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Normally, only a low amount of BNP is found in your blood. But if your heart has to work harder than usual over a long period of time, such as from heart failure , the heart releases more BNP, increasing the blood level of BNP.

The brain natriuretic peptide BNP test is used to:. You do not need to do anything before you have this test. Talk to your doctor about any concerns you have regarding the need for the test, its risks, how it will be done, or what the results will mean. To help you understand the importance of this test, fill out the medical test information form. The health professional drawing your blood will:. You may feel nothing at all from the needle puncture, or you may feel a brief sting or pinch as the needle goes through the skin.

Some people feel a stinging pain while the needle is in the vein. But many people do not feel any pain or have only minor discomfort once the needle is positioned in the vein. The amount of pain you feel depends on the skill of the health professional drawing the blood, the condition of your veins, and your sensitivity to pain. There is very little risk of complications from having blood drawn from a vein. Normal BNP values are higher in women than in men.

BNP values normally increase with age but may stay within a normal range unless heart failure is present. The normal values listed here—called a reference range—are just a guide. These ranges vary from lab to lab, and your lab may have a different range for what's normal. In patients who have heart failure, BNP levels tend to become greatly elevated during episodes of worsening shortness of breath.

If the elevated figure is above then NICE guidelines say that the patient should have an echocardiogram within three weeks which is the gold standard of diagnosis for heart failure in the UK. We feel the BNP test is one of the most under utilised tools in primary care and would if used more assist clinicians with the early symptons and treatment of Heart Failure.

Once heart failure has been diagnosed, some doctors believe that following repeated measurements of BNP can help guide their therapy for instance, by helping them decide whether they have given enough diuretic medication.

But clinical trials have failed to demonstrate that treatment guided by serial BNP measurements is useful in improving the outcome of therapy, so most doctors use BNP blood tests only if they need help with the diagnosis.

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