Troponins are released as a result of heart injury or necrosis. This makes extremely high troponin concentration a marker for the diagnosis of an acute myocardial infarction. Many COPD patients also suffer from cardiovascular co-morbidities. Therefore, scientists from the DZHK and the DZL hypothesized that the serum level of high-sensitivity Troponin I (hsTI) might also have informative power in COPD patients. Actually they found that stable COPD patients with higher hsTI concentration had higher all-cause mortality compared to patients with lower concentration. Intriguingly, this correlation was independent from a concomitant heart disease. The significance became even higher when further parameters were taken into account. In the future, this result might help to detect high risk patients earlier.
Although the mechanistic background is still unclear, it is known that troponin is released from the heart. Therefore, COPD patients with higher hsTI level should get regular check-ups of basic parameters like bloods lipids, ECG or long-term blood pressure to identify possibly overlooked cardiovascular diseases. These patients should also see their pneumologist regularly in order to reduce the exacerbation risk and to improve symptom control.
For this project researchers analysed data and biosamples of more than 2000 patients of the COSYCONET study which is part of DZL. Above the collaboration of DZL and DZHK, four of five DZL sites were involved. The paper published in the European Respiratory Journal is one of the highest ranking publications of two or more German Health Centers.
Original work: Waschki B, Alter P, Zeller T, Magnussen C, Neumann JT, Twerenbold R, Sinning C, Herr C, Kahnert K, Fähndrich S, Blankenberg S, Rabe KF, Welte T, Jörres RA, Vogelmeier CF, Bals R, Watz H (2019) High-sensitivity troponin I and all-cause mortality in patients with stable COPD: An analysis of the COSYCONET study. European Respiratory Journal: 1901314 (ARCN, BREATH, CPC-M, UGMLC).
DOI: 10.1183/13993003.01314-2019
Source: Press release ARCN – Airway Research Center North
Troponin I predicts all-cause mortality of COPD patients – Collaborative project of DZL and DZHK published