The diagnosis and management of canine heart disease could be facilitated by a highly sensitive and specific laboratory test that predicts risk of morbidity and mortality, is helpful in directing therapy, easy to perform, inexpensive, and widely available.  This article details if, how, and when the cardiac biomarker, N-terminal fragment of the prohormone B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), helps in the diagnosis and management of canine heart disease.

Veterinary cardiac biomarkers, specifically NT-proBNP, hold great promise; however, NT-proBNP should be considered as work in progress. Until ongoing clinical studies are completed, there remain substan- tial gaps in existing knowledge on how recommendations for this technology are formulated for everyday patients, which require a slow and cautious approach. Thus, the incorporation of NT-proBNP assay or any diagnostic test into successful clinical practice requires an understanding of the science behind the technology, as well as the clinical data available to date. These aspects of NT-proBNP testing and their contribution to clinical management of canine heart disease are discussed.