Will High-Sensitive Troponin Immunoassays Lead to more Clarity or Confusion in Clinical Practice?

Aldo Clerico (1) , Alberto Giannoni

1 Laboratory of Cardiovascular Endocrinology and Cell Biology

Although an increase in cardiac specific troponin I (cTnI) and T (cTnT) always indicates myocardial damage, the test is not able to identify the mechanisms responsible for this damage, which may not be due to ischemia, but rather to other clinical conditions. In the present issue of Clinical Science, Filusch et al. assessed cTnI by a high-sensitivity assay in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension. This study suggests that even in patients with extra-cardiac diseases, high-sensitive troponin assays could lead to better risk stratification of patients in whom conventional cTnI assays show values within the 'normal range'. These data support the hypothesis that increased levels of cTnI and cTnT are an index of cardiac tissue damage even in patients with extra-cardiac diseases, thus enabling appropriate diagnosis and, when necessary and available, specific treatment.

Mots clés: Medicine

Aldo Clerico, Alberto Giannoni. Will High-Sensitive Troponin Immunoassays Lead to more Clarity or Confusion in Clinical Practice?. Clinical Science, 2010, 119 (5), pp.203-205. ⟨10.1042/CS20100234⟩. ⟨hal-00597817⟩