High Cardiac Troponin T Linked to Reduced Survival

Elevated levels of cardiac troponin T found in nearly 20 percent of percutaneous coronary intervention patients

FRIDAY, Nov. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Elevated levels of cardiac troponin T following percutaneous coronary intervention is associated with reduced survival in patients with normal creatine kinase levels, according to the results of a study published in the Nov. 7 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Abhiram Prasad, M.D., and colleagues from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., measured the post-procedure levels of cardiac troponin T -- a marker of myonecrosis -- in 1,949 patients who had undergone percutaneous coronary intervention and had normal pre- and post-procedure levels of creatine kinase-muscle-brain fraction.

The researchers found elevated levels of cardiac troponin T in 19.6 percent of patients, which was associated with significantly higher mortality and higher combined rates of death and myocardial infarction over the median follow-up of 26 months. Elevated cardiac troponin T levels decreased three-year survival from 93.2 percent to 86.9 percent, the investigators report.

"The present report should help refocus the stage light on post-procedural infarction," Neal S. Kleiman, M.D., from Methodist DeBakey Heart Center in Houston, writes in an accompanying editorial. "If we are to continue to reduce the long-term morbidity and mortality in patients who have had interventions, we will need to recognize that there are new markers of risk that merit our attention."

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