By SCOTT GOTTLIEB
Among the most common reasons why people come to an emergency room are bouts of heart failure or pneumonia. Sometimes they have a touch of both. When I was doing my residency 10 years ago, we often struggled to distinguish swiftly one illness from the other. We ended up treating a lot of people for both ailments, until we could sort out later which was the primary culprit.
Over the past decade, the way that doctors approach this common clinical dilemma has been transformed with a simple innovation. A blood test for B-type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP), which is secreted by weakened
Read More from the Article Source: Full Article
