Cardiac troponin T levels at 96 hours reflect myocardial infarct size: a pathoanatomical study.

We determined the utility of single-point measurements of circulating cardiac troponin T (cTnT) for the noninvasive estimation of infarct size in 16 beagle dogs after left anterior descending artery (LAD) ligation. Pathoanatomical infarct sizes were determined by the triphenyltetrazolium chloride method and correlated with serum concentration changes of cTnT. Peak cTnT levels (14.10 +/- 4.71 microg/l) were reached after 110 +/- 21 h. A significant correlation was found between peak cTnT levels (p = 0.0001, r = 0. 83) or cumulative cTnT levels and relative infarct size (p = 0.0010, r = 0.72). A single cTnT measurement 96 h after LAD ligation was equally predictive of infarct size (p = 0.0010, r = 0.74) as peak or cumulative cTnT levels derived from serial sampling. cTnT levels at 96 h may thus be useful for practical and cost-effective estimation of infarct size.