Introduction:
High-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays have provided a significant contribution for the early diagnosis of cardiovascular events due to their ability to detect lower concentrations of troponin levels more rapidly. There is significant evidence about the association between the absolute value of elevated cardiac troponin levels with the prognosis of patients with chest pain (3). However, it is well-known that elevated cardiac troponin levels may occur in situations other than acute coronary syndromes, as it happens with supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (4). There is no clear information about the magnitude of cardiac troponin elevation associated with these arrhythmias since the development of new high sensitivity troponin …show more content…
Reentrant tachycardias were considered independently of the mechanism involved.
The clinical characteristics of the patients were recorded and included cardiovascular risk factors, history of cardiovascular disease, previous medication, physical examination findings, type of presentation and hospital outcome.
All the patients underwent continuous ECG monitoring during their stay in the emergency department in order to detect the exact moment the arrhythmia reverted.
The Elecsys Troponin T high-sensitive assay (Roche Diagnostics) was used at admission and after 3 hours. A troponin level > 14 ng/l was considered a positive result. The medical approach was blind to troponin levels and the patients were treated according to the recommendations of the international guidelines.
The patients were discharged with indication of stress echocardiography with exercise or dobutamine to rule out induced myocardial ischemia. This functional test was not performed if the attending physician preferred to order a conventional or computed tomography coronary angiography.
This hypothesis-generating observational study enrolled 100 consecutive
High-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays have provided a significant contribution for the early diagnosis of cardiovascular events due to their ability to detect lower concentrations of troponin levels more rapidly. There is significant evidence about the association between the absolute value of elevated cardiac troponin levels with the prognosis of patients with chest pain (3). However, it is well-known that elevated cardiac troponin levels may occur in situations other than acute coronary syndromes, as it happens with supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (4). There is no clear information about the magnitude of cardiac troponin elevation associated with these arrhythmias since the development of new high sensitivity troponin …show more content…
Reentrant tachycardias were considered independently of the mechanism involved.
The clinical characteristics of the patients were recorded and included cardiovascular risk factors, history of cardiovascular disease, previous medication, physical examination findings, type of presentation and hospital outcome.
All the patients underwent continuous ECG monitoring during their stay in the emergency department in order to detect the exact moment the arrhythmia reverted.
The Elecsys Troponin T high-sensitive assay (Roche Diagnostics) was used at admission and after 3 hours. A troponin level > 14 ng/l was considered a positive result. The medical approach was blind to troponin levels and the patients were treated according to the recommendations of the international guidelines.
The patients were discharged with indication of stress echocardiography with exercise or dobutamine to rule out induced myocardial ischemia. This functional test was not performed if the attending physician preferred to order a conventional or computed tomography coronary angiography.
This hypothesis-generating observational study enrolled 100 consecutive