SERUM BRAIN NATRIURETIC PEPTIDE AS AN EARLY MARKER FOR PREDICTING PROGNOSIS IN COMMUNITY ACQUIRED PNEUMONIA AS COMPARED WITH A - DROP SCORE

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Community acquired pneumonia is a major cause of hospitalization, mortality, and causes significant health care expenses especially in third world countries. As disease presentation differs from a mild disease that can be managed as an outpatient basis to a severe illness requiring treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU), hence determining the appropriate level of care and plan of management is important for improving outcomes. MATERIAL AND METHOD: An observational study was conducted in order to achieve objectives. A total number of 66 cases constituted the sample size. Along with information regarding risk factors like smoking, diabetes, hypertension, kidney failure, and other relevant medical problems, a history of the fever , cough and other relevant symptoms were asked. Basic blood investigations, CBC,RFT, BNP and Chest X Ray were conducted in order to measure the parameters and A-DROP score was calculated and data was compiled and analyzed. RESULTS: The study showed that 13.6% of the patients were below 30 years , 33.3% were in age group of 31-40 years , 31.8% in age group of 41-50 years and 15.2% in age group of 51-60 years. Our study identified BNP of 251.6 pg/ml and A-DROP score of more than equal to 4 as strong marker for predicting mortality. CONCLUSION: This study had shown that, Serum BNP can be used as an inital marker at the time of admission in place of A-DROP score for predicting worse outcomes in patients of Community Acquired Pneumonia.