Introduction: Early identification of septic patients at high risk of dying remains a challenge. The prognostic role of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) or N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in septic patients remains controversial. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to investigate the value of elevated BNP or NT-proBNP in predicting mortality in septic patients.
Methods: PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched (up to February 18, 2011). Studies were included if they had prospectively collected data on all-cause mortality in adult septic patients with either plasma BNP or NT-proBNP measurement. Studies that failed to construct a 2 × 2 table of results were excluded. Two authors independently determined the validity of included studies and extracted data.
Results: 12 studies with a total of 1,865 patients were included. Elevated natriuretic peptides were significantly associated with increased risk of mortality (odds ratio (OR) 8.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.94 to 15.13, P < 0.00001). The association was consistent for BNP (OR 10.44, 95% CI 4.99 to 21.58, P < 0.00001) and NT-proBNP (OR 6.62, 95% CI 2.68 to 16.34, P < 0.0001). The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, and negative likelihood ratio were 79% (95% CI 75 to 83), 60% (95% CI 57 to 62), 2.27 (95% CI 1.83 to 2.81) and 0.32 (95% CI 0.22 to 0.46), respectively.
Conclusions: Our results suggested that an elevated BNP or NT-proBNP level may prove to be a powerful predictor of mortality in septic patients. Future larger and more adequately powered prospective studies are warranted to clarify the assay standardization, the optimal cut-off, and the prognostic value of BNPs in conjunction with other biomarkers.