NPPB and liver dysplastic nodule: Welsh et al. performed a case-cohort study of 439 patients with incident microvascular events (new or worsening DN or DR) and 2946 noncase subjects, and found that plasma NT-proBNP was higher among case subjects, and the hazard ratios for microvascular events per 1-SD increase in NT- proBNP was 1.63 after adjustment for potential confounding factors [36].