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Post mortem troponin T analysis in sudden death: Is it useful?

R Rahimi1, N D Dahili, K Anuar Zainun

  • 1Universiti Teknologi MARA, Faculty of Medicine, Centre for Pathology Diagnostic and Research Laboratories (CPDRL), Sungai Buloh Campus, Selangor, Malaysia. dr_razuin@salam.uitm.edu.my.

The Malaysian Journal of Pathology
|September 3, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Post mortem cardiac troponin T (cTnT) levels do not reliably indicate cardiac events in sudden death cases. Troponin T is not a specific or useful biomarker for autopsy investigations.

Area of Science:

  • Forensic Medicine
  • Cardiology
  • Toxicology

Background:

  • Cardiac diseases cause a significant portion of sudden natural deaths.
  • Cardiac troponin T (cTnT) is a biomarker for cardiac injury.
  • Investigating sudden death requires reliable biomarkers.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate cardiac troponin T (cTnT) levels in post mortem subjects.
  • To determine the utility of post mortem serum cTnT in sudden natural death investigations.

Main Methods:

  • Analyzed serum cTnT in 140 sudden death cases (aged 18-50).
  • Categorized subjects into five groups: CVD, SUD, TT, NTT, and OD.
  • Compared cTnT levels across different causes of death.

Main Results:

  • Median cTnT levels varied across groups, with non-thoracic trauma (NTT) highest (0.90 μg/L) and sudden unexplained death (SUD) lowest (0.17 μg/L).
  • No statistically significant difference in cTnT levels was observed between different causes of death (p ≥ 0.05).

Conclusions:

  • Cardiac troponin T (cTnT) is not a specific biomarker for post mortem cardiac events.
  • cTnT lacks diagnostic utility in autopsy investigations of sudden death.
Abstract

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