Does the combination of history, physical examination, and NT-proBNP testing improve the diagnosis of heart failure in primary care outpatients?
Measurement of NT-proBNP provides the largest additional diagnostic value to standard history and physical examination for diagnosing heart failure in the primary care setting.
In this study, we estimated the quantitative diagnostic contribution of elements of the history and physical examination in the diagnosis of heart failure in primary care outpatients, which may help to improve clinical decision making. The largest additional quantitative diagnostic contribution to those elements was provided by measurement of NT-proBNP. For daily practice, a diagnostic rule was derived that may be useful to quantify the probability of heart failure in patients with new symptoms suggestive of heart failure.
Kelder et al. (Tue,) studied this question.