NPPB and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: After the exclusion of patients with confounders (more than mild aortic or mitral regurgitation, severe renal dysfunction, obesity or severe COPD) the septal E/e’ (r = 0,584, r2 = 0,34, P <0,0001), lateral E/e’ (r = 0,377, r2 = 0,14, P <0,0001), and the average E/e’ (r = 0,487, r2 = 0,24, P <0,0001) were all significantly better correlated to NT-proBNP.