Persistent Low Level Troponin?

[mkoven]

After having been to the er a gazillion times for chest pain, and getting bloodwork looking for heart damage, I have a question. My troponon, a marker of heart damage, has always been below the cutoff, but it's never been zero. it's always been .01 or .02, with the cutoff being .034. But from what I understand, normal people should have no detectable troponin. those with any troponin may be at risk down the road or have some sort of persistent, even low-grade disease process, even if the issue is not an acute heart attack. My cardiologist told me not to worry. From a quick lit search, it looks like this is a bit controversial, but troponin is a pretty specific marker for heart muscle injury--thus why it's not normal to have any. Any thoughts?

[flop]

Troponin was initially thought to be THE definitive marker of cardiac muscle damage. However it has been shown that there are groups of people who have positive troponin results (not just below cut-off) but do not have heart damage going on. One of the most common reasons is people with any degree of kidney trouble - we all breakdown and make new cardiac muscle so we all release small amounts of troponin but the kidney usually clears these quickly so they don't show up on blood tests. Another reason for having an elevated troponin is after a tachyarrhythmia (I'm guessing that this would include sinus tachy, it does include atrial fibrillation and other SVTs). When the heart works that fast and that hard is will cause some minor damage to the heart muscle (the body will then repair is when at rest). If you have been very tachy prior to an ER visit then that could be the cause of the slight troponin. Some people always seem to have slight troponin elevations for no apparent reason. What is known is that the cut-off shows very low levels of cardiac muscle damage, people who have had a heart attack (and not been given immediate treatment to prevent muscle damage) will show massive rises in troponin (I know someone who's troponin was 53.2 and he is still alive, it wasn't even the highest his doctor had seen!).

If the cardiologist says don't worry then try to do as he said,

Flop

[ajw4790]

Hi,

I am not really sure, but it would seem to make sense if your heart is having to work harder and beats faster and at an irregular rhythm on a daily basis, that this level might be "higher" than "normal". I don't think it necessarily means anything bad, like heart damage, is occurring. I think it may be more of a signal that your heart is working harder on a regular basis. If the cardio. isn't worried, I don't think that at this level it should be too big of a problem. Maybe just something to watch over time?

Hope you are feeling better!

[mkoven]

thanks, you guys! I really didn't want something else to fret over!!! I keep having these back and forth moments of "your heart is fine" to "maybe there's a problem," whether it's vasospasm, microvascular damage, aorta enlargement, and this troponin thing. It's so exhausting and not very interesting to get so worried about one's health.