High-Sensitivity Troponin T and Incident Heart Failure in Older Men: British Regional Heart Study

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this work was to study the association of high-sensitivity troponin T (hsTnT) with incident heart failure (HF), and implications for its use in prediction models.

Methods and results: In the British Regional Heart Study, 3852 men aged 60-79years without baseline HF (3165 without baseline chronic heart disease) were followed for a median of 12.6years, during which 295 incident cases of HF occurred (7.7%). A 1-SD increase in log-transformed hsTnT was associated with a higher risk of incident HF after adjusting for classic risk factors (hazard ratio [HR] 1.58, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.42-1.77) and after additional adjustment for N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP; HR 1.34, 95% CI 1.19-1.52). The strength of the association between hsTnT and incident HF did not differ by strata of other risk factors. An hsTnT concentration of <5ng/L had a sensitivity of 99.7% (95% CI 98.1%-99.9%) and a specificity of 3.4% (95% CI 2.8%-4.0%). A risk-prediction model including classic risk factors and NT-proBNP yielded a C-index of 0.791, but addition of hsTnT did not further improve prediction (P = .28).

Conclusions: Elevated hsTnT is consistently associated with risk of HF in older men. HF occurred rarely over 12years when baseline hsTnT was below the limit of detection. hsTnT measurement, however, does not improve HF prediction in a model already containing NT-proBNP.

Keywords: Risk prediction; biomarkers; heart failure; troponin T.