False Elevation of Troponin in a Case of Multiple Myeloma

Falsely elevated troponin has been reported in the literature. The authors present a case of a 51-year-old man who was admitted with nausea, vomiting, and chest discomfort. He was found to have elevated troponin with no electrocardiographic changes. He has normal coronaries on angiogram and normal echocardiogram. A diagnostic time-out and second look at the laboratory values captured abnormalities that triggered a workup that ruled in a multiple myeloma diagnosis. We suspected falsely elevated troponin levels secondary to macrotroponin, a complex of elevated immunoglobulin levels and troponin, which has been rarely reported to cause elevated troponin levels in patients with multiple myeloma.