Purpose: Previous echocardiographic studies have revealed an association between enlarged cardiac chamber volumes and elevated troponin levels. An automatic 4- chamber volumetric analysis tool was adopted to investigate this association in patients who underwent cardiac-gated computed tomography angiography (CCTA).
Hypothesis: We hypothesized that troponin concentration within the normal range correlates with cardiac chambers’ volumes.
Material & Methods: Serum troponin was obtained from 157 ambulatory patients before undergoing CCTA for nonacute coronary artery evaluation. Volumes of the cardiac chambers and the left ventricular mass were automatically analyzed and indexed to body surface area. Patients with troponin levels within the upper quartile (>0.007 ng/mL, n = 39) were compared to patients with troponin levels within the 3 lower quartiles (≤0.007 ng/mL, n = 118).
Results: None of the patients had a troponin concentration >0.05 ng/mL (the 99th percentile of the general population). There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between the groups. There were significant correlations between troponin and ventricular volumes after adjustments for age and gender. In an analysis that included 107 patients without any known heart diseases, including those pathological findings in the current CCTA, there were significant correlations between troponin levels and left and right ventricular volumes after adjustments for age, gender, and baseline characteristics (odds ratio [OR]: 1.08, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03-1.14, P = 0.002 and OR: 1.11, 95% CI: 1.04-1.19, P = 0.002; respectively).
Conclusion: By use of automatic volumetric analysis in individuals undergoing CCTA, an association between larger right and left cardiac chambers and higher levels of troponin levels was found.
