The prognostic significance of elevated cardiac troponin levels (CTL) in hospitalized patients with no other evidence of myocardial ischemia or injury is largely unknown. Fifty patients (mean age 61 +/- 15 years, 15 women) out of 580 consecutive hospitalized patients were selected based on normal CK-MB and at least 3-fold increase of CTL. The medical charts of these patients were reviewed and a 1-year follow-up was performed. The most frequent admission diagnoses were exacerbation of congestive heart failure (22%), stroke (20%) followed by respiratory failure (6%), cirrhosis (6%), gastrointestinal bleeding (6%), end-stage renal disease (4%), atrial fibrillation (4%) and metastatic malignancies (4%). Abnormal CTL prompted a cardiology consult in 48% of patients, an echocardiogram in 44%, myocardial perfusion study in 10% and coronary angiography in 1 patient. Of 21 deaths, only 1 was related to an acute coronary event. The measurement of CTL in patients without definite clinical or electrocardiographic evidence of myocardial ischemia and with a wide spectrum of clinical diagnoses does not predict in-hospital and at 1 year cardiovascular complications and/or cardiac death.
Copyright 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel