NPPB and metabolic syndrome: Compared to those in I-Preserve, patients in TOPCAT were slightly younger and more often men, and had a lower level of mean LVEF, blood pressure, and serum albumin, but had a substantially higher level of median NT-proBNP among the 615 patients (18%) with NT-proBNP available; patients in TOPCAT had a higher average BMI and were more likely to have dyslipidemia, renal dysfunction, or prior HF hospitalization, but had a lower prevalence of ECG LVH (Table 1).