RESUMO
UNLABELLED: Percutaneous coronary intervention is a proven method of treatment of significant number of patients with coronary artery disease. Sometimes it is accompanied by increases of troponin levels. Frequency and degree of these phenomena are not well known. THE AIM: of the present study was to establish frequency and a degree of the increase of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in patients with stable coronary artery disease who underwent elective PTCA without complications during hospitalization. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Our study included 99 patients fulfilling the above mentioned criteria. Average patients' age was 58,7 years (range 37-82 years). In 67 patients PTCA was performed on one artery, in 27 on two and in five on 3 arteries. In 36 patients standard stents were implanted, in the remaining (63 patients) only PTCA was performed. In the group with stents 29 patients had 1 stent implanted, 6 patients had 2 stents and one had 3 stents implanted. In all the patients cTnI (Abbott AxSYM Immunoassay) were determined before PTCA, 12 and 24 hours after PTCA. RESULTS: After 12 hours percentage of cTnI results above 1.22 microg/L (cut-point for spontaneous infarction according to the new definition of heart infarction) amounted to 35% and above 2.0 microg/L (cut-off according WHO infarction definition) 28%. After 24 hours the percentages were similar. Typical cTnI results (90%) after PTCA were below 10 microg/L. cTnI levels were weakly but statistically significantly correlated with number of vessels, which underwent PTCA. CONCLUSION: Moderate increases in troponin I after PTCA seem to correspond to minimal, in general, cardiac injury.
