Postmortem Pericardial Natriuretic Peptides As Markers of Cardiac Function in Medico-legal Autopsies

Overview

Journal Int J Legal Med

Specialty Forensic Sciences

Date 2006 Jun 3

PMID 16741745

Citations 26

Authors

Bao-Li Zhu

Takaki Ishikawa

Tomomi Michiue

Dong-Ri Li

Dong Zhao

Sayaka Tanaka

Yasunobu Kamikodai

Kohei Tsuda

Shuji Okazaki

Hitoshi Maeda

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) in the blood are clinical markers for the diagnosis of cardiac failure. This study was a comprehensive analysis of the postmortem pericardial levels of the natriuretic peptides in serial medico-legal autopsy cases (n=263, within 72 h postmortem) to assess their validity in investigating cardiac function. There was no significant relationship of pericardial ANP or BNP levels with postmortem time or the age of the subjects. The ANP and BNP levels showed negative correlations with the pericardial cardiac troponin T level. The ANP level was significantly elevated in drowning cases. Pericardial BNP and the BNP/ANP ratio were significantly higher for chronic congestive heart disease. However, asphyxiation, sharp instrument injury, hyperthermia, and fatal MA poisoning cases showed lower levels for both markers. These observations suggest that elevations in the postmortem pericardial ANP and BNP may mainly depend on acute atrial overload and subacute or chronic cardiac failure, respectively, and may be reduced by advanced myocardial damage.

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