Natriuretic peptides, including BNP and NT-proBNP, are widely recognized as essential biomarkers for diagnosing and managing heart failure. However, their clinical utility extends far beyond traditional heart failure settings. Secreted by cardiomyocytes in response to myocardial stretch, these peptides offer valuable insight into a range of cardiopulmonary and metabolic conditions. This webinar will explore the expanding role of BNP and NT-proBNP in both outpatient and inpatient care, including their application in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and acute pulmonary embolism (PE).
Learning Objectives:
- Describe how natriuretic peptides contribute to risk stratification, treatment decisions, and disease monitoring.
- Illustrate how to interpret elevated values in different clinical contexts, including stable outpatient management of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and acute triage decisions in the emergency department for acute pulmonary embolism (PE).
- Discuss current recommendations from recent global clinical guidelines and symposiums.
- Explain how medications influence NT-proBNP levels and how they can guide the optimization of treatment to reduce hospitalization and mortality rates in patients with heart failure.
Educational support provided by
Course Includes
- 1 Article
- Course Certificate
MLO and Northern Illinois University (NIU), DeKalb, IL, are co-sponsors in offering continuing education units (CEUs) for this issue’s CE article. CEUs or contact hours are granted by the College of Health and Human Sciences at Northern Illinois University, which has been approved as a provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E.® program. Continuing education credits awarded for successful completion of this test are acceptable for the ASCP Board of Registry Continuing Competence Recognition Program. Readers who pass the test successfully (scoring 70% or higher) will receive a certificate for 1 contact hour of P.A.C.E.® credit. The fee for this continuing education test is $20. This test was prepared by Amanda Voelker, MPH, MT(ASCP), MLS, Clinical Education Coordinator, School of Health Studies, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL.
Level of Instruction: Intermediate
Passing scores of 70 percent or higher are eligible for 1 contact hour of P.A.C.E. credit. This test is no longer valid for CEUs after May 28, 2026.
NIU is approved as a provider of continuing education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences by the ASCLS P.A.C.E. ® Program.