NTproBNP concentrations in healthy children

Abstract

Introduction: There have been limited studies generating BNP and NT-proBNP reference intervals for paediatric populations. We prospectively assessed NT-proBNP levels in a cohort of 854 healthy school children from the Lifestyle of Our Kids (LOOK) prospective longitudinal study. Materials and methods: NT-proBNP analysis was performed on 172 girls and 212 boys with average age 8.1 years, 183 girls and 181 boys, average age 10.1 years and 183 girls and 180 boys with average age 11.9 years. Data were stratified according to age and gender with the median, range of results and 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles calculated. Results: There were no significant differences between males and females at any of the 3 study ages. Significant differences were seen between the 8 and 12 year-olds, 10 and 12 year-olds and the 8 and 12 year-old boys. Discussion: Our study demonstrated that NT-proBNP concentrations in healthy children progressively decline between ages 8 and 12 years. Our selection of unambiguously healthy children produced similar median but lower 97.5th percentile NT-proBNP concentrations to previously published studies.