NPPB and chronic kidney disease: Increased NT-pro-BNP level is a powerful predictor of mortality in individuals with vascular disease, diabetes, or heart failure, in the unselected general population, and in patients with CKD.31,33-36 Detectable levels of troponin T were predictive of all-cause and cardiac mortality in studies of elderly people in the general population37 and patients with moderate to severe CKD both before and after the need for dialysis therapy.15,31,38-39