Aim: We have evaluated here the clinical and analytical performance of the Alere™ Heart Check (AHC) test, a rapid point-of-care immunoassay designed for the measurement of BNP from fresh capillary whole blood.
Patients & methods: One-hundred-and-sixty-three patients with stable chronic heart failure followed at the cardiac rehabilitation were submitted to simultaneous capillary (AHC) and plasma (Abbott architect system) BNP measurements.
Results: Both methods showed a good correlation, although the values diverged when BNP was higher than 2000 pg/ml. Despite a relatively poor precision of AHC, however, both methods showed the same performances to assess patients' dyspnea and equivalent sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive predicting values.
Conclusion: AHC BNP test is a good POC for the management of heart failure despite a relatively poor precision.
Keywords: BNP; capillary whole blood; chronic heart failure; correlation; evaluation; immunoassay; patient dyspnea assessment; point of care; reference method; sensitivity; specificity.