Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases are one of the main causes of population mortality and morbidity in developed countries. Due to prolonging the life expectancy and due to the application of modern therapeutic methods, the number of ill people with various degrees of heart failure is growing.
Congestive heart failure affects almost 2% of the Western European population. It is a condition accompanied by activation of many systems and mechanisms.
The production of natriuretic peptides as the main mechanism physiologically antagonistic to the activation of reninangiotensin-aldosteron system and higher activity of sympatic nerve system plays a key role. The history of revealing single components of the natriuretic peptide system extends back into the half of the 20th century, when in the 1950s Kisch et al. detected for the first time the secretion granules in the myocardium of guinea-pigs, and not long after Henry and Pierce described the increased diuresis during dilatation of the left atrium by balloon.