Furthermore, a recent study from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohort showed that NT-proBNP discriminated mortality risk better than conventional risk factors only in subjects with DM instead of non-DM people after a median of 7.2 years of follow-up [11], which suggested that DM status may modify the relationship between NT-proBNP and risk of death. Here, NPPB is linked to diabetes mellitus.