Methods: The study included seven patients (3 females, 4 males) with congestive heart failure and 36 patients (17 females, 19 males) without a history of previous myocardial infarction or congestive heart failure. Plasma BNP and homocysteine levels were measured. All the patients were assessed by transthoracic echocardiography.

Results: In 19 patients (44%) plasma BNP and homocysteine levels were lower than 15 pg/ml and 7.91 mol/l, respectively, whereas in 24 patients, the corresponding levels were higher than 68.4 pg/ml and 8.84 mol/l. There was a significant positive correlation between plasma BNP and homocysteine levels (r=0.92, p<0.001, 95% confidence interval 0.86-0.95). No significant differences existed between male and female patients with respect to plasma BNP and homocysteine levels. The mean BNP and homocysteine levels were 369.9±75.4 pg/ml and 13.6±4.6 mol/l in patients with congestive heart failure; and 78.3±24.3 pg/ml and 8.9±2.5 mol/l in patients without a history of previous myocardial infarction or congestive heart failure, respectively. The two groups exhibited significantly different plasma BNP and homocysteine levels. Echocardiographic assessments showed left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in 11 patients without congestive heart failure, having a BNP level above 100 pg/ml. These patients also had higher homocysteine levels.

Conclusion: Our results demonstrate that the risk for congestive heart failure may be more reliably assessed if BNP and homocysteine levels are incorporated into diagnostic screening of patients with myocardial infarction and of high-risk patients such as those with diabetes or hypertension.