Risk factors and effects on long-term outcomes of cardiac troponin I elevation after drug-eluting stent implantation in patients with stable coronary artery disease

This study evaluated the risk factors of postprocedure cardiac troponin I (cTnI) increase and its effects on repeat revascularization and on overall clinical outcomes in patients with angina and normal preprocedural cTnI levels who underwent successful drug-eluting stent implantation. Postprocedure cTnI increase (≥0.5 ng/ml) was observed in 207 of 802 patients (25.8%). Patients with cTnI increase had more extensive coronary disease than patients without cTnI increase, which necessitated for the cTnI group more multilesion interventions and a longer total stent length. In multivariate analysis, total stent length (odds ratio 1.02, 1.01 to 1.03, p = 0.001) and use of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors (3.07, 1.54 to 6.11, p <0.001) were identified as independent predictors of cTnI increase. During a median follow-up of 42 months, however, there were no significant between-group differences in Kaplan-Meier estimates of any repeat revascularization (24.8% vs 18.4%, hazard ratio 1.085, 0.723 to 1.627, p = 0.694) and major adverse cardiovascular events (27.0% vs 22.4%, 1.022, 0.703 to 1.485, p = 0.911). In conclusion, patients with postprocedure cTnI increase had more severe baseline coronary disease and received more complex interventional procedures. However, cTnI increase after successful drug-eluting stent implantation was not associated with an increased risk of repeat revascularization or of other adverse events.