The prognostic effect of brain natriuretic peptide levels on outcomes of hospitalized patients with COVID-19

Abstract Natriuretic peptides are biomarkers of myocardial stress and are frequently elevated among patients with severe respiratory illnesses, typically in the absence of elevated cardiac-filling pressures or clinical heart failure. Elevation of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) or NT-proBNP is associated with worse outcomes among patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). We conducted a retrospective cohort study based on a comprehensive review of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) of patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) to evaluate whether BNP on admission has prognostic value on mortality and hospital length of stay (LOS) among patients admitted with confirmed COVID-19 along with the inclusion of additional prognostic variables. Overall, 146 patients were included after analyzing 230 patients’ EMR and excluding potential confounding factors for abnormal BNP. Our statistical analysis did not show a statistically significant association between BNP level and mortality rate ( P = 0.722) or ICU LOS ( P = 0.741). A remarkable secondary outcome to our study was that impaired renal function (GFR