Cardiac troponin after major vascular surgery: The role of perioperative ischemia, preoperative thallium scanning, and coronary revascularization

Objectives We sought to determine the role of preoperative predictors, particularly ischemia, on preoperative thallium scanning (PTS) and coronary revascularization on low-level and conventional troponin elevations after major vascular surgery. Background Postoperative cardiac troponin (cTn) elevations have recently been shown to predict both short- and long-term mortality after vascular surgery. Methods The perioperative data, including PTS and subsequent coronary revascularization, continuous perioperative 12-lead ST-segment trend monitoring, cTn-I and/or cTn-T, and creatine kinase-MB fraction in the first three postoperative days, were prospectively collected in 501 consecutive elective major vascular procedures. Results Moderate to severe inducible ischemia on PTS was associated with a 49.0% incidence of low-level (cTn-I >0.6 and/or cTn-T >0.03 ng/ml) and 22.4% conventional (cTn-I >1.5 and/or cTn-T >0.1 ng/ml) troponin elevation. In contrast, patients with preoperative coronary revascularization had 23.4% and 6.4% low-level and conventional troponin elevations, respectively, similar to patients without ischemia on PTS. By multivariate logistic regression, ischemia on PTS was the most important predictor of both low-level and conventional troponin elevations (adjusted odds ratios [ORs] 2.5 and 2.7, p = 0.02 and 0.04, respectively), whereas preoperative coronary revascularization predicted less troponin elevations (adjusted ORs 0.35 and 0.16, p = 0.045 and 0.022, respectively). Postoperative ischemia (>10 min), the more so prolonged (>30 min) ischemia was the only independent predictor of troponin elevation if added with the preoperative predictors to the multivariate analysis (ORs 15.8 and 22.8, respectively; p < 0.001). Conclusions Troponin elevations occur frequently after vascular surgery. They are strongly associated with postoperative ischemia, predicted by inducible ischemia on PTS, and reduced by preoperative coronary revascularization.