This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Emergency Medicine  • Pulmonary Diseases, Other  • Alert me on articles by topic

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In reply

We fully agree with Costantino and colleagues that differences in baseline characteristics may confound the results of a randomized controlled trial. Therefore, it is important to stress that the detailed description of demographic variables, symptoms, physical examination, vital signs, and laboratory analyses clearly showed that the BNP group and the control group were well matched in the B-Type Natriuretic Peptide for Acute Shortness of Breath Evaluation (BASEL) study.^1-2 Therefore, it is appropriate to conclude from the BASEL data that BNP testing is cost-effective in patients with acute dyspnea.

Costantino and colleagues argue that additional baseline variables including arterial blood gases and number of breaths per minute could have revealed a significantly different level of clinical severity. However, as suggested by the similarities in all other baseline characteristics, arterial blood gases and number of breaths per minute were also comparable in the BNP group and the control group in . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AUTHOR INFORMATION
Christian Mueller, MD; Kirsten Laule-Kilian, BSc; Michael Christ, MD; André P. Perruchoud, MD

RELATED ARTICLE

Cost-effectiveness of B-Type Natriuretic Peptide Testing in Patients With Acute Dyspnea
Christian Mueller, Kirsten Laule-Kilian, Christian Schindler, Theresia Klima, Barbara Frana, Daniel Rodriguez, André Scholer, Michael Christ, and André P. Perruchoud
Arch Intern Med. 2006;166(10):1081-1087.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT