Heart Failure Outcomes and Benefits of NT-proBNP-Guided Management in the Elderly: Results From the Prospective, Randomized ProBNP Outpatient Tailored Chronic Heart Failure Therapy (PROTECT) Study

Abstract Background Elderly patients with heart failure (HF) have a worse prognosis than younger patients. We wished to study whether elders benefit from natriuretic peptide-guided HF care in this single-center study. Methods and Results A total of 151 patients with HF resulting from left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) were treated with HF treatment by standard-of-care (SOC) management or guided by N-terminal pro-B type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) values (with a goal to lower NT-proBNP ≤1000 pg/mL) over 10 months. The primary end point for this post-hoc analysis was total cardiovascular events in 2 age categories (