Background: High-sensitive (hs) cardiac troponin assays are clinically useful in various cardiac conditions. We aimed to extend current evidence by assessing the relations of hs-cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and I (hs-cTnI) to invasive hemodynamic data and outcome in stable patients with left-ventricular (LV) dysfunction or precapillary pulmonary hypertension (PAH).
Methods: Hs-cTnT (Roche Diagnostics) and hs-cTnI (Beckman-Coulter) were measured in 103 stable patients with LV-dysfunction and 56 patients with precapillary PAH referred for right-heart catheterization.
Results: Up to 47.6% of patients with LV-dysfunction, and up to 37.5% of patients with precapillary PAH had hs-troponin levels above the respective 99th percentiles. In patients with LV-dysfunction, both hs-troponins exhibited significant associations to hemodynamics, NT-proBNP and mortality (hs-cTnT: age/sex-adjusted HR 2.0 [95% CI 1.3-3.1]; hs-cTnI: age/sex-adjusted HR 1.9 [1.2-2.8]). Both hs-troponins demonstrated weaker associations to hemodynamics in patients with precapillary PAH but correlated significantly to NT-proBNP. Mortality was only predicted by hs-cTnI (age/sex-adjusted HR 3.0 [1.5-6.1]).
Conclusions: Hs-troponins are related to indices of impaired myocardial performance in patients with LV-dysfunction and precapillary PAH. Both hs-troponins were also predictive for mortality in patients with LV-dysfunction. In precapillary PAH, only hs-cTnI was independently prognostic which might depend on the superior analytical performance of this assay.
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