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A novel biochemical approach to congestive heart failure: cardiac troponin T
1Department of Cardiology and INSERM U-390, University Hospital of Montpellier, France. missov@medicine.ucsf.edu
Insights
Cardiac troponin T, a marker for cardiac necrosis, is elevated in congestive heart failure patients. Higher levels correlate with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, indicating disease severity.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Biomarkers
- Heart Failure Research
Background:
- Congestive heart failure is characterized by myocardial cell death.
- Cardiac troponin T is a protein specific to cardiac necrosis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine if cardiac troponin T levels are elevated in congestive heart failure patients.
- To assess cardiac troponin T as a potential biomarker for heart failure.
Main Methods:
- Quantitative determination of cardiac troponin T using a second-generation enzyme immunoassay.
- Plasma samples analyzed from 33 heart failure patients and 47 healthy controls.
- Patients categorized by radionuclide left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) to correlate troponin T levels with functional impairment.
Main Results:
- Mean cardiac troponin T was significantly higher in heart failure patients (0.140 ng/mL) compared to healthy controls (0.0002 ng/mL) (P = .0001).
- Patients with LVEF ≤45% exhibited higher cardiac troponin T levels (0.163 ng/mL) than those with LVEF >45% (P = .04).
- A significant negative correlation was observed between cardiac troponin T levels and LVEF (R = -0.41, P = .01).
Conclusions:
- Cardiac troponin T is elevated in congestive heart failure patients.
- The level of cardiac troponin T parallels the severity of heart failure.
- Cardiac troponin T is a suitable biomarker for monitoring structural changes in congestive heart failure.
Background:
The major structural characteristic of congestive heart failure is myocardial cell death. The aim of our study was to determine whether the level of cardiac troponin T, a protein specific for cardiac necrosis, was increased in patients with congestive heart failure.
Methods And Results:
Plasma samples were obtained from 33 patients and 47 healthy control subjects. Quantitative determination of cardiac troponin T was achieved with a second-generation enzyme immunoassay without cross-reactivity with the skeletal muscle troponin T. The mean circulating level of cardiac troponin T was 0.140 +/- 0.439 ng/mL in patients with heart failure and 0.0002 +/- 0.001 ng/mL in the healthy controls (P =. 0001). To evaluate the relation between structural degradation and functional impairment, patients in heart failure were categorized according to their radionuclide left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). In the 23 patients with LVEF 45% (P =.04). There was also a negative correlation between cardiac troponin T and LVEF (R = -0.41, P =.01).
Conclusions:
These data show that cardiac troponin T is increased in patients with congestive heart failure and that the level parallels the severity of the disease. We conclude that cardiac troponin T is a suitable candidate-marker molecule to monitor congestive heart failure from a structural perspective.