In a population-based prospective study of 1991 subjects without apparent heart failure both BNP and NT-proBNP were predictive of mortality after a median follow up of 5.6 years even after adjustment for clinical and echocardiographic abnormalities including left ventricular hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction [92]; in this analysis, NT-proBNP was clearly superior to BNP for prognostication. This evidence concerns the gene NPPB and left ventricular hypertrophy.