Evaluation of Cardiac Troponin T Elevation in Patients with Chronic Renal Failure Undergoing Dialysis

Cardiac troponin T(cTnT) levels are elevated in patients with chronic renal fail-ure(CRF) with dialysis which represent myocardial damage. But the cut-off levels were different in laboratories and clinical physicians. We conducted a study to find out the cut-off levels of acute myocardial infarction(AMI), ischemic heart disease(IHD), and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in CRF patients with dialysis and prognostic aspect according to cTnT levels.

Cardiac troponin T(cTnT) of total 98 patients(men 43, women 55, mean age 60.4±13.0 years) was reviewed the diagnosis and progress for 3 years by the medical records. Serum cTnT by Elecsys 2010(Roche diagnostics, Germany), the 4^th generation assay was performed.

Mean cTnT level of total 98 patients was 0.26ng/mL and the patients with CVD were 59(60.2%) and their cTnT level was 0.41 ng/mL. The mean levels of cTnT in AMI, IHD, and CVD were 1.10, 0.52, and 0.41 ng/mL, respectively. cTnT, CK, CK-MB, and glucose were increased according to severity of cardiovascular disease. The cut-off levels of cTnT in AMI, IHD, and CVD was 0.10, 0.07 and 0.06 ng/mL. The sensitivity and specificity of AMI, IHD, and CVD in each cut-off level were 88.2/71.6%, 76.2/71.4%, and 81.4/71.8%, respectively. The survival rate above cTnT 0.1 ng/mL during 3 years was significantly decreased(p<0.001) than less than 0.1 ng/mL.

The degree of cTnT elevation in CRF patients with dialysis represents severity of cardiovascular disease and poor survival rate.