In this study we aimed to assess in a well-characterized cohort of patients with cirrhosis of non-alcoholic aetiology, before or after the development of ascites, the expression of NT pro-BNP and of other parameters of cardiac dysfunction in order to determine whether the behaviour of NT pro BNP is linked to the stage of liver disease or to a cardiac dysfunction secondary to cirrhosis. This evidence concerns the gene NPPB and Cirrhosis.