Elsevier

The American Journal of Medicine

Volume 120, Issue 9, September 2007, Pages 819.e13-819.e14
The American Journal of Medicine

AJM online
Brief observation
Troponin I Levels in Patients with Preeclampsia

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2006.05.068Get rights and content

Abstract

Introduction

Preeclampsia involves a diffuse inflammatory state and elevated levels of troponins in patients with preeclampsia have been anecdotally reported. It is, however, unknown whether it is attributable to the preeclampsia.

Objective

We sought to determine the troponin I levels at the time of delivery in pregnant women with and without preeclampsia.

Methods

Plasma samples were obtained at the time of delivery and serum troponin I was measured by ELISA method.

Results

Thirty-nine women were included (20 with preeclampsia and 19 without). Mean troponin I level was 0.008 ng/mL in patients with preeclampsia and 0.01 ng/mL in controls (P =.59). The highest troponin I level was 0.04 ng/mL for both patients with and without preeclampsia.

Conclusions

Preeclampsia was not associated with a rise in troponin I levels in our study. Patients with preeclampsia and elevated troponin levels should have further cardiac investigations.

Section snippets

Methods

Between November 2003 and March 2005, blood samples were obtained at the time of admission to delivery from patients with and without preeclampsia. The diagnosis of preeclampsia was based on standard criteria as outlined in the Technical Bulletin from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology on hypertension in Pregnancy.7 The control group was composed of patients not meeting criteria for preeclampsia, as well as healthy controls. The study was approved by the institutional review

Results

There were 39 women included (20 with preeclampsia and 19 without). Baseline characteristics of the 2 groups are summarized in the Table. Mean troponin I level was 0.008 ng/mL in patients with preeclampsia and 0.01 ng/mL in controls (P = .59) (Table). The highest troponin I level was 0.04 ng/mL for patients both with and without preeclampsia, occurring in only 1 patient in each group.

Discussion

Despite hypertension and the presence of an inflammatory state, troponin I was not found to be elevated in patients with preeclampsia. Although preterm delivery in a mother with preeclampsia is predictive of future late cardiovascular death,8 and population-based studies have shown increased long-term maternal risk with hypertension related to pregnancy,6, 9 the lack of troponin elevation at the time of delivery in our patient series does not support the occurrence of acute myocardial damage.

References (17)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (48)

  • Coronary Events in the Pregnant Patient: Who Is at Risk and How Best to Manage?

    2021, Canadian Journal of Cardiology
    Citation Excerpt :

    Cardiac biomarkers such as troponin are usually within the normal range immediately after delivery, however, high sensitivity assays can be elevated in up to 4% of asymptomatic women.60 Pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension are also associated with abnormal troponin elevations, in the absence of other markers of cardiac ischemia.61 The use of beta-mimetic tocolysis has been shown to elevate troponin T levels in one study.62

  • Pregnancy and Cardiovascular Disease

    2021, Sex Differences in Cardiac Diseases: Pathophysiology, Presentation, Diagnosis and Management
  • Urinary troponin concentration as a marker of cardiac damage in pregnancies complicated with preeclampsia

    2020, Medical Hypotheses
    Citation Excerpt :

    Previous studies that did not found association between preeclampsia related hemodynamic changes and elevated levels of serum troponin were largely conducted on a small sample size [27]. Most of the studies which reported this association aimed to investigate levels of troponin I, while levels of TnT were not analyzed [26–29]. Ravichandran first reported results of study assesing serum cardiac troponin I using a high-sensitivity assay in pregnancies complicated with hypertensive disorder.

  • Troponin i in preeclampsia and eclampsia

    2015, Progresos de Obstetricia y Ginecologia
View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text