Background: The association of troponin-I levels and outcome in medical-surgical ICU patients has been studied before in populations with low to moderate prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors. The objective in this article is to examine the association of troponin-I levels with hospital mortality in patients with high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors who were admitted with medical-surgical indications to a non-cardiac intensive care unit.
Methods: This was a retrospective study of adult patients admitted to a tertiary medical-surgical ICU between July 2001 and November 2011. Data were extracted from prospectively collected ICU and clinical laboratory databases. Patients were stratified based on the highest troponin-I level in the first 72 h of admission into four groups (Group I < 0.03, Group II = 0.03-0.3, Group III = 0.3-3 and Group IV > 3 ng/mL). Hospital mortality was the primary outcome. To study the association between elevated troponin-I and hospital mortality, we carried out multivariate logistic regression analyses with Group I as a reference group.
Results: During the study period, 3368 patients had troponin-I levels measured in the first 72 h, of whom 1293 (38.3%) were diabetic and 1356 (40.2%) were chronically hypertensive. Among the study population, 2719 (81%) had elevated troponin-I levels (0.03 ng/mL and higher). Hospital mortality increased steadily as the troponin-I levels increased. Hospital mortality was 23.4% for Group I, 33.2% for Group II (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.08, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84, 1.38), 49.6% for Group III (aOR = 1.64, 95% CI 1.24, 2.17), and 57.4% for Group IV (aOR 1.80, 95% CI 1.30, 2.49). The association of increased mortality with increased troponin level was observed whether patients had underlying advanced heart failure or not. Subgroup analysis showed an increased mortality in patients aged < 50 years, non-diabetics and not on vasopressors.
Conclusion: In a population with high prevalence of diabetes and hypertension, elevated troponin-I was frequently observed in medical-surgical critically ill patients, and showed a level-dependent association with hospital mortality.
Keywords: Critical care; ICU; Mortality; Troponin-I.