Previously, we reported that cardiac troponin T (TnT) can be detected and measured in coronary effluent from isolated rat hearts during hypoxia. The present study was designed to evaluate the release kinetics of TnT from post-ischemic rat hearts. Using the Langendorff technique, the hearts were reperfused for 4 h after 20 min or 60 min of global ischemia. Coronary flow was measured by timing the collection of the coronary perfusate that dripped from the hearts, and left ventricular pressure (LVP) was monitored continuously during the experiments. The amount of TnT released in 1 min was compared with the release of creatine kinase (CK) and lactate dehydrogenase (LD). The release kinetics of CK and LD showed a monophasic pattern and the levels at 4 h after reperfusion returned to baseline levels. By contrast, the release kinetics of TnT showed a small peak followed by a larger and more sustained peak. There were good negative correlations between developed pressure of LVP and both sigma TnT and the amount of TnT released within 1 min at 4 h after reperfusion. These results indicate that the release kinetics of TnT is different from that of CK and LD during reperfusion, and further that cardiac TnT is a useful indicator of myocardial cell damage and can be used to evaluate the degree of myocardial cell damage in both the early and late phase of acute myocardial infarction.