Using preoperative N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide levels for predicting major adverse cardiovascular events and myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery in Chinese advanced-age patients

 BACKGROUND  N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is often viewed as an indicator for heart failure. However, the prognostic association and the predictive utility of NT-proBNP for postoperative major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) and myocardial injury after noncardiac surgery (MINS) among older patients are unclear.

 METHODS  In this study, we included 5033 patients aged 65 years or older who underwent noncardiac surgery with preoperative NT-proBNP recorded. Logistic regression was adopted to model the associations between preoperative NT-proBNP and the risk of MACEs and MINS. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to determine the predictive value of NT-proBNP.

 RESULTS  A total of 5033 patients were enrolled, 63 patients (1.25%) and 525 patients (10.43%) had incident postoperative MACEs and MINS, respectively. Analysis of the receiver operating characteristic curve indicated that the cutoff values of ln (NT-proBNP) for MACEs and MINS were 5.16 (174 pg/mL) and 5.30 (200 pg/mL), respectively. Adding preoperative ln (NT-proBNP) to the Revised Cardiac Risk Index score and the Cardiac and Stroke Risk Model boosted the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves from 0.682 to 0.726 and 0.787 to 0.804, respectively. The inclusion of preoperative NT-proBNP in the prediction models significantly increased the reclassification and discrimination.

 CONCLUSIONS  Increased preoperative NT-proBNP was associated with a higher risk of postoperative MACEs and MINS. The inclusion of NT-proBNP enhances the predictive ability of the preexisting models.