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Can N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide accurately diagnose chronic pulmonary hypertension among extremely low gestational age neonates: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Journal of Perinatology (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To evaluate the utility of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT pro-BNP) for screening and diagnosis of chronic pulmonary hypertension (cPH) in extremely low gestational age neonates (ELGANs < 28 weeks gestational age [GA]).

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study analyzing paired echocardiogram results and serum NT pro-BNP concentrations (ng/L) in ELGANs. The accuracy of NT pro-BNP for diagnosing cPH and determining the optimal cut-off for cPH screening and diagnosis was evaluated using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves and Youden’s index, respectively.

Results

Among the 35 included ELGANs, the area under the ROC curve for diagnosing cPH using NT pro-BNP levels combined with GA < 25 weeks and BPD was 0.70 (95% CI: 0.51-0.89). An NT pro-BNP value of 1129 showed a sensitivity of 85%, while a value of 2674 demonstrated a specificity of 95%, indicating its potential role in screening and diagnosing cPH.

Conclusions

NT pro-BNP is a promising biomarker for screening and diagnosing cPH in ELGANs.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neonatology, La Paz University Hospital, Madrid, Spain

    Macarena Garcia-Gozalo

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Amish Jain

  3. Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Amish Jain, Dany E. Weisz & Bonny Jasani

  4. Department of Newborn and Developmental Pediatrics, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Dany E. Weisz

  5. Division of Neonatology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Bonny Jasani

Authors
  1. Macarena Garcia-Gozalo
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  2. Amish Jain
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  3. Dany E. Weisz
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  4. Bonny Jasani
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Contributions

MGG—conceptualization, investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, data curation, formal analysis. AJ—writing—review and editing. DW—writing—review and editing, statistical analysis. BJ—writing—review and editing, methodology, conceptualization, investigation, supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Macarena Garcia-Gozalo.

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Garcia-Gozalo, M., Jain, A., Weisz, D.E. et al. Can N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide accurately diagnose chronic pulmonary hypertension among extremely low gestational age neonates: A Retrospective Cohort Study. J Perinatol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-025-02462-3

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