In Piercarlo Ballo's study, the author measured 1012 asymptomatic subjects with systemic hypertension and/or type 2 diabetes with no clinical evidence of HF and concluded that NT-proBNP measurement could provide more information for the prediction of clinical outcome in asymptomatic, stage A-B HF hypertensive and diabetic patients [55]. This evidence concerns the gene NPPB and hydrops fetalis.