ESC guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure 2008: application of natriuretic peptides

In the current ESC guidelines for the management of heart failure,1 Dickstein et al. for the first time integrate B-type natriuretic peptides into a concrete diagnostic algorithm for patients with suspected first presentation of chronic heart failure. Patient presentation in this case most probably happens in primary care. Therefore, it seems uncommon that natriuretic peptides are …