Role of cardiac troponin T in the long-term risk stratification of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention

Aims To investigate the long-term prognostic significance of pre- and post-procedure troponin T (TnT) elevations in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods and results TnT and CK-MB were measured pre- and post-procedure in 212 patients undergoing PCI. Major adverse events (composite of death, myocardial infarction and revascularization) were ascertained 6 years later. Pre-procedural TnT was a significant independent predictor of time to major events (hazard ratio [HR] 1.75, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.16-2.64) and death or myocardial infarction. Post-procedural TnT elevation above normal was the only independent predictor of the primary end-point at 1 year (HR 2.39, 95% CI 1.09-5.26) but was not significantly related to event-free survival throughout follow-up. Post-PCI elevation of TnT 5× above normal, however, did significantly predict time to events during the entirety of follow-up. By contrast, CK-MB was not an independent predictor in any of the analyses. Conclusions Our study confirms the long-term prognostic value of pre-procedural TnT elevation in patients undergoing PCI, and demonstrates the superior predictive ability of a post-procedural increase in TnT 5× normal for long-term adverse events. Whether the prognostic significance of smaller post-procedural TnT elevations extends beyond the intermediate-term awaits further investigation.