NPPB and metabolic disease: Besides indicators of underlying metabolic disease (blood glucose, hemoglobin A1c, and low-density lipoprotein [LDL] cholesterol), the currently generally available prognostic protein biomarkers are those indicating myocardial dysfunction (N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide, NTproBNP) [6,7], cardiac necrosis (cardiospecific high-sensitivity troponin T, cTnT-hs), inflammatory activity (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, CRP-hs) [7], and renal dysfunction (cystatin-C, Cys-C) [4,8].