N-Terminal Pro–B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Concentrations Predict the Risk of Cardiovascular Adverse Events from

BACKGROUND: We investigated whether higher concen-trations of N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) predicts cardiovascular adverse events (CV-AEs) in patients with osteoarthritis treated with antiinflammatory drugs. METHODS: NT-proBNP was measured in baseline sam-ples from 433 patients enrolled in a prospective ran-domized study designed to test the therapeutic effect of a novel metalloproteinase inhibitor. We monitored CV-AEs and retrospectively investigated their relation-ship to the concomitant use of selective cyclooxygen-ase-2 inhibitors (coxibs), traditional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (tNSAIDs), and glucocorticoids. CV-AEs includedmyocardial infarction, stroke, newor worsening of preexisting arterial hypertension, conges