Does cardiac morphology predict plasma brain natriuretic peptide levels in adolescent athletes?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to establish the relationship of plasma levels of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) to physiologic parameters and cardiac morphologic characteristics in a population of young athletes. Our hypothesis is that physiologic and cardiac morphologic characteristics do not predict BNP levels in adolescent athletes. Design: Observational study. Setting: Outpatient hospital. Participants: Thirty healthy male adolescent high school football players (16.0 6 1.1 years). Interventions: Physical exam, electrocardiography, plasma BNP measurement by rapid fluorescent immunoassay, and limited echocardiography. Main Outcome Measures: Null hypothesis-physiologic parameters and cardiac morphology do not predict plasma BNP levels in healthy adolescent football players. Significance level set at P <0.05. Results: Plasma BNP for this population was 11.9±10.2 pg/mL. There was no correlation between BNP and mean arterial pressure (r = -0.09, P = 0.64), body mass index (r = 0.11, P = 0.57), interventricular septal thickness (r = -0.15, P = 0.44), left ventricular (LV) wall thickness (r = 0.00, P = 0.99), relative wall thickness (r = -0.04, P = 0.84), LV mass (r = 0.05, P = 0.79), or LV mass index (r = 0.11, P = 0.55). Conclusions: Plasma BNP levels in healthy adolescent athletes have no correlation to body mass index or LV mass, even when corrected for body surface area.