Cardiac troponins I and T in patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome: a comparative study in a routine setting.

We compared cardiac troponin I (cTnI), using Access, Sanofi Pasteur, and cardiac troponin T (cTnT), using Elecsys, Boehringer Mannheim, in the first two routine blood samplings in a routine panel of cardiac markers for the biochemical diagnostic evaluation of patients with symptoms of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). No significant differences in the overall clinical performances of cTnI and cTnT were observed for the diagnosis of AMI (n = 68), but cTnI demonstrated lower initial sensitivity and higher specificity compared with cTnT. cTnT was increased to higher relative values than cTnI (P = 0.023). Discordances were found between cTnI and cTnT in sample I but not in sample II; positive cTnT/negative cTnI was more common than the opposite discordance (P = 0.027). cTnT was more frequently increased in patients with unstable angina pectoris (UAP) than cTnI (P = 0.038), with no significant differences between sample I and sample II; discordant results with respect to cTnI and cTnT appeared in 6 (33%) of these patients, all of which were positive for cTnT and negative for cTnI. Four patients with UAP (22%) developed AMI within 4 months; three were associated with increased cTnI and cTnT at the time of initial testing, and one was discordant (positive cTnT). In patients classified with no acute coronary syndrome (n = 84), five concordant positives for cTnI and cTnT were observed, indicating the existence of a myocardial injury of recent origin in these patients. AMI evolved in one of these patients 5 months later. We conclude that cTnT and cTnI detect acute myocardial injury with equal clinical performance in AMI patients classified by WHO criteria. cTnT was more frequently increased in patients with UAP than cTnI, but the clinical significance of this discordance could not be determined from this study.