Troponin T, a predictor of death in chronic haemodialysis patients

Of the 10 chronic haemodialysis patients whose serum TnT levels exceeded the threshold value of 0.1 yg. L-1 at entry into the study, four were dead at 1 year and three others had a diagnosis of CAD. Of the 20 chronic haemodialysis patients with normal serum TnT levels at entry, one died and none had CAD. All five deaths were cardiac related, either arising from acute myocardial infarction or by sudden death. When serum TnT levels were compared with accepted predictors of death in chronic haemodialysis patients, such as serum creatinine, serum albumin and haematocrit, in the present study serum TnT proved to be more accurate and had excellent sensitivity and specificity. Serum TnT was also superior to serum TnI, which proved to be no more discriminating than the non-specific muscle marker, aldolase.