"The use of Brain Natriuretic Peptide in the evaluation of Heart Failure in Geriatric Patients"

Heart failure is one of the main morbidity and mortality factors in the general population and especially in elderly patients.Thus, at European level, the prevalence of heart failure is 1% in people under 55 years of age but increases to over 10% in people over 70 years of age.The particularities of the elderly patient, which make the management of heart failure difficult, are the presence of comorbidities, frailty, cognitive impairment, and polypharmacy However, elderly pa-tients are under-represented in clinical trials on the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure.The need for complementary methods (biomarkers) for differential and early diagnosis of heart failure is becoming more and more evident, even in its subclinical stages.These methods need to have increased specificity and sensitivity and be widely available.Natriuretic peptides, in particular B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and its fraction NTproBNP, have gained in recent years an in-creasingly important role in the screening, diagnosis and treatment of heart failure.