A correlation study between bNP levels and length of hospitalization

background Increased brain natriuretic peptide(BNP) levels have been related to several conditions, such as acute heart failure(AHF), pulmo-nary embolism(PE) and acute coronary syndromes(ACS). Particularlyamong elderly patients, a longer hospitalization is related to higher morbidity and mortality. Aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between BNP levels and length of in-hospital stay.Methods We retrospectively evaluated 500 consecutive patients admit-ted to our Internal Medicine Department. BNP was evaluated at admis-sion in all the patients. Each patient underwent a complete diagnosticworkup. We evaluated the curve-fit correlation between BNP levels and days of hospitalization using SPSS 13.0 for windows systems.results Mean age was 80±9.85 years, males representing 58% of the sample.AHF represented 74.9%, ACS 13.5%, PE 11.6% of the sam-ple. We found that BNP levels and days of hospitalization were better described by a logarithmic regression model (R2: 0.674, p < 0.0001)conclusion Among elderly patients admitted in an Internal Medicine department, higher BNP levels are associated to longer hospitalizations independently to the pathology. This relationship is better described by a logarithmic regression model. Larger cohorts are required to validate this observation