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- FS, fractional shortening
- HCM, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- LVEDd, left ventricular end diastolic diameter
- VST, ventricular septal thickness
- PWT, posterior wall thickness
- TnT, troponin T
The serum concentration of cardiac troponin T (TnT) is a specific and highly sensitive marker of myocardial injury, and its diagnostic and prognostic values have been well established and widely reported in acute coronary syndromes.1 We have recently found that patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy with particularly poor prognosis have increased serum concentrations of TnT in absence of significant coronary stenoses.2,3 It is noteworthy that most patients with poor outcomes had persistently high TnT, including during periods of heart failure stabilised by conventional treatment, when they were free of dyspnoea, and of radiographic and auscultatory signs of pulmonary congestion. Therefore, an increase in serum TnT concentrations seems to be a reliable indicator of subclinical ongoing myocyte injury.
METHODS
To examine the relation between TnT concentrations (second generation assay kit) and echocardiographic findings in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), 30 consecutive patients with HCM were examined at the Hyogo Prefectural Amagasaki Hospital between 1995 and 2000. The mean age was 62.1 years (range 25–82 years). The diagnosis of HCM was based on the presence of left ventricular hypertrophy in the absence of …