Objectives: The aim of this pilot study was to assess cardiac troponin I (cTnI) levels in pericardial effusion (PE) and plasma from dogs with PE.
Background: A reliable marker for detecting the etiology of PE in dogs remains undetermined. cTnI is becoming the gold standard marker for detecting myocardial damage in humans.
Animals, materials and methods: Twenty-five dogs with PE (21 and 4 secondary to neoplasia and non-neoplasia causes, respectively) and 37 control dogs were studied.
Results: The median cTnI plasma level from 37 normal dogs versus 15 (out of 25) with PE was 0.03ng/mL and 0.19ng/mL, respectively (p<0.0001). The level of cTnI in PE versus plasma showed a significant correlation (p<0.01) with a Spearman r coefficient of 0.7603. No significant difference could be found upon comparison of dogs with only right atrial tumors (n=14) versus other types of neoplasia (n=7), nor between the group with right atrial tumors (n=14) versus all other cases including neoplasia as well as non-neoplasia (n=11). The median cTnI level in PE from dogs with neoplasia and non-neoplasia was not significantly different.
Conclusions: cTnI did rise significantly in both PE and plasma in dogs with PE, but cTnI levels did not help differentiate between etiologies according to this study. One of the study groups is too small to allow final conclusions, and thus further investigation is warranted.