NPPB and Sepsis: In the 49 surviving patients, the average recovery time for HF and sepsis were 1.5 days and 14.5 days, respectively; the median plasma NT-proBNP levels were 3000.15 ng/L before treatment, 1685.22 ng/L after recovery of HF, and 329.35 ng/L after recovery of sepsis, which showed the potential effects of sepsis on NT- proBNP; the differences among them and between any two comparisons (before treatment and after HF recovery, before treatment and after sepsis recovery, and after HF and sepsis recovery) were significant (P < 0.001 for all; Table 4).