Blood test could predict looming death

Troponin is a heart protein, and high levels of it are often seen in hospital patients who don’t have specific signs of a heart attack.

But its particular significance was unknown.

Researchers in the UK tracked 20,000 hospital patients who had a troponin blood test for any reason between June and August 2017.

The average age of the patients was 61, and more than half (53 per cent) were women.

Cardiac troponin was high in 1085 (just under 5.5 per cent) patients.

Some 1782 (nine per cent) patients died after a year, and a total of 2825 (14 per cent) had died just over two years (809 days) later.

Patients were nearly four times as likely to die if their cardiac troponin test result was high (45 per cent) as those whose test results fell within the normal range (12 per cent).

Further analysis revealed that an abnormally high cardiac troponin level was independently associated with a 76 per cent heightened risk of death, not only from both cardiovascular disease, but also other causes.

In fact, the most common cause of death was cancer (1308 or 46 per cent), followed by cardiovascular disease (363 or 13 per cent).

After excluding deaths that occurred within 30 days, a parameter used to define the likelihood that this was associated with the reason for their hospital stay, the link between cardiac troponin and heightened risk of death persisted.

Researchers cautioned that as this was an observational study, no firm conclusions about cause and effect could be drawn.

But they said while it seems biologically implausible that cardiac troponin level itself poses a heightened risk of death, it’s more likely that it represents a broad spectrum of health issues, including undiagnosed, which increase the risk, say the researchers.