Start website main content

  • Istituto di Scienze della Vita

High-sensitivity Troponin T as a strong predictor of heart failure syndromes: a research by scientists of Sant’Anna School and Fondazione Toscana Gabriele Monasterio published in Circulation journal

Publication date: 06.03.2018
Image for da_sx_michele_emdin_claudio_passino.jpg
Back to Sant'Anna Magazine

Heart failure is a chronic, progressive condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood. A substantial number of hospitalizations for heart failure occur each year in the Western World and coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the developed countries.

The objectives of the study conducted by Michele Emdin, Claudio Passino, Alberto Aimo, Giuseppe Vergaro and Andrea Ripoli, following the Sant’Anna School Institute of Life Science and Fondazione Toscana Gabriele Monasterio’s strategy for international cooperation, were to describe the high-sensitivity troponin T (cutoff level 18 ng/L) as a strong and independent predictor of cardiovascular mortality and of hospitalization for cardiovascular causes. This biomarker represents an additional tool for prognostic stratification. The research published in “Circulation” shows that the troponin T (normally detectable in the blood of patients who present with myocardial infarction) as a quantitative marker, help in the prediction of cardiac diseases risk.

The meta-analysis investigated data from eleven studies conducted in Europe and the US in which a total of 9289 patients were examined. Researchers of Sant’Anna School and Fondazione Toscana Gabriele Monasterio aimed to define a threshold for patients who present with chest discomfort and have low levels high-sensitivity troponin T (hs-TnT). The new limit of 18 ng/L (the optimal cutoff level for the prediction of all-cause death) risk level was identified in patients with range levels of 8 to 29 ng/l.

 “This absoloutely original research on troponin T’ – said Michele Emdin and Claudio Passino - in cooperation with the ‘cardiovascular section of Sant’Anna School’, Fondazione Toscana Monasterio and notable cardiologists from the US and Europe, confirms the prognostic role of biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure and its impact on clinical practice”.

Cover photo, from left to right: Michele Emdin and Claudio Passino.