Abstract
The worldwide incidence of heart failure is steadily increasing over the past several decades, partly due to the population aging and improved survival of patients with cardiovascular diseases. Therefore raises the importance of biochemical substances which would uncover ongoing cardiac overload, enable the treatment monitoring and make care of the patients with heart failure more effective.
According to results of many clinical trials, this task is fulfilled at most by natriuretic peptides which gradualy become a part of standard clinical practise.