Effect of thermal therapy using hot water bottles on brain natriuretic peptide in chronic hemodialysis patients

9 hemodialysis patients with chronic heart failure symptoms and plasma BNP levels > 500 pg/mL, mean age 74.2, 22% male, based in Japan. Excluded patients with arterial ventricular stenosis, outflow obstacle heart disease, cancer, or active inflammatory disease.

Thermal therapy using hot water bottles (30-minute hot water foot bath at 44°C, followed by 30 minutes lying down with hot water bottles wrapped in a blanket), administered 3 times per week after hemodialysis for 3 months.

Plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels at 3 monthssurrogate