Effect of Different Types of Anesthesia on Perioperative Brain Natriuretic Peptide Levels in Parturient Cardiac Patient Undergoing Elective Cesarean Section

In our study, investigators will detect changes in brain natruretic peptide (BNP) levels in parturient patients at risk undergoing cesarean section, in relation to type of anesthesia used, general anesthesia versus spinal anesthesia, in order to evaluate the safety of type of anesthesia used for this kind of patient.

It is very important to assess and predict risk in the cardiovascular system in such cases. A number of cardiac indexes for predicting risk have been developed like Goldman Multifactorial risk index, Eagle's risk index and Detsky's cardiac index. It is recommended to evaluate patients using these indexes and to institute preoperative medical treatment based on the results. These clinical scoring systems, although simple to use, are somewhat inconvenient and have limitations in their predictive value, whereas other cardiac investigations such as exercise or pharmacologic stress imaging are sensitive, but limited in practice by time and resources. Recently brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) was spotlighted as a predictor for diagnosing and predicting the prognosis of various heart diseases. BNP is a cardiac hormone that is synthesized by ventricular myocytes in response to ventricular dysfunction. Recent studies have demonstrated that elevated serum BNP levels predict first cardiovascular event and death in the general population. In addition, it has been reported that BNP measured before major surgery can be used as a predictor of postoperative cardiac complications.