Background: Recent studies have shown the presence of ongoing myocardial damage in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) detected by myofibril and membrane damage markers, cardiac troponin T (TnT) and heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP), which identifies patients at increased risk of a future cardiac event (CE: death or rehospitalization because of worsening CHF). There is a difference between TnT and H-FABP in their release kinetics following myocardial damage.
Methods and results: TnT and H-FABP were measured in 103 patients with CHF and in 31 controls. Patients were classified into 4 groups based on detectable (>or=0.01 ng/ml) or undetectable TnT (TnT+ or TnT-) and H-FABP >or= or <4.5 ng/ml (mean + 2 standard deviations in controls) (high-H-FABP or low-H-FABP). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the CE-free rate (n=43) was significantly lower in patients with TnT+ and high-H-FABP than in patients in the other 3 groups (patients with TnT+ and low-H-FABP, TnT- and high-H-FABP, and TnT- and low-H-FABP; p=0.02, p=0.001 and p=0.0002, respectively). In stepwise multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis, TnT+ (p=0.01) and high-H-FABP (p=0.04) were independent predictors of future CE.
Conclusions: Elevated levels of both TnT and H-FABP predict adverse outcomes in CHF patients.