High NTpBNP levels after surgery

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SatoriFound

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Sorry to bother you all. I am freaking out a little. The newest doctor's notes state that hubby's NTpBNP levels are at 745. There has been NO mention of this in any other note in his chart, and it is not listed in the tests section of MyChart either. So I googled, yeah I know, evil. The first thing that comes up are the studies on high BNP levels after surgery predicting mortality. I mean, if the doctors don't mention it then it isn't an issue right? They did hint to my husband he might not get released until the weekend (today is POD 8), but that sounded to him like it was because it would take that many days to get his inr in range.

Did others have these high levels after surgery? Was there any concern about it? Everything I was reading states levels over 400 have a higher likelihood of a bad outcome. It just keeps saying heart failure, heart failure, heart failure. I need someone to calm me down before I run out to the hallway and start harrassing nurses.
 
Please relax, if there's anything concerning, his doctor will let him/you know.

Now, what are the units here - is it 745 ng/L or 745 pg/mL? There are two tests (or units of measurement) that measure the same thing (i.e. the pressure inside the heart) - normal range is respectively <300 ng/L and <100 pg/mL. Yours is probably former (ng/L), but in either case, please don't worry, there are people who've had numbers much higher.

Then, question really is what was his BNP level "before the surgery"? You probably don't know because it was never measured. This test is relatively uncommon especially for valve patients. So your husband probably had higher BNP level in this range even before the surgery. Now that he has had surgery done, it would gradually drop over the next several weeks/months.

Feel free to run this by his doctor/nurses. They would also assure you to not read too much into it.
 
Last edited:
tjay said:
Please relax, if there's anything concerning, his doctor will let him/you know.

Now, what are the units here - is it 745 ng/L or 745 pg/mL? There are two tests (or units of measurement) that measure the same thing (i.e. the pressure inside the heart) - normal range is respectively <300 ng/L and <100 pg/mL. Yours is probably former (ng/L), but in either case, please don't worry, there are people who've had numbers much higher.

Then, question really is what was his BNP level "before the surgery"? You probably don't know because it was never measured. This test is relatively uncommon especially for valve patients. So your husband probably had higher BNP level in this range even before the surgery. Now that he has had surgery done, it would gradually drop over the next several weeks/months.

Feel free to run this by his doctor/nurses. They would also assure you to not read too much into it.
Click to expand...

Thank you. :) I just needed someone to put it in perspective. He was so low energy yesterday. I could just tell how exhausted he was, markedly down from the day before. But, he is also extremely anemic right now, so that would make anyone low energy. I don't know the units, as the doctor didn't post them in her notes, and for some reason tests are suddenly very slow to show up in mychart. Before they were almost immediate, but his echo results from yesterday STILL aren't posted. LOL Yeah, I stalk his mychart.

I have not been at the hospital when his doctors were there since I read this, and will miss them today because I have a physical therapy appointment, but I did talk to his nurse. She said this is very common and that she has seen much higher. She said she had a patient who was getting measured at 20,000! LOL Made me feel a little better. It sounds like they think it is related to fluids. He is back on Lasik.
 
Lasix should help. My FIL had BNP over 20k during his last hospital stay due to heart failure (which I hope you know that while not a party, is a chronic condition livable and treatable - I sure didn’t I thought it meant sudden death when I first encountered it) and also he has pretty bad kidney function that also elevated it.
 
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