THE SCREENING CARDIAC TROPONIN SERUM CONCENTRATION CORRELATES WITH THE PULSE WAVE VELOCITY IN PATIENTS WITH ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION BUT NOT IN NORMOTENSIVE INDIVIDUALS

Objective: Serum cardiac troponin concentration measurement is used in clinical practice to assess myocardial damage, especially in suspicion of an acute cardiovascular event. Accelerated pulse wave velocity (PWV) is associated with excessive arterial stiffness. PWV measurement is a test for assessing subclinical organ damage in the course of hypertension. This study aimed to examine the correlation between screening troponin level and PWV value in patients with and without hypertension. Design and method: The study consisted of a retrospective data analysis from patients hospitalized for planned diagnostics. Exclusion criteria were: 1) acute illness within the last month; 2) left ventricle ejection fraction less than 40%; 3) symptoms of heart failure on physical examination; 4) renal failure. PWV was measured by Sphygmocor XCEL® (AtCor Medical, Sydney, Australia). Correlations were examined using Spearman’s rank correlation test. p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The final analysis included 98 individuals. 62 (63.3%) had hypertension. The mean age was 58.4 ± 16.4 years. People with hypertension had a higher mean age (65.5 ± 13.0 years vs. 46.1 ± 14.3 years; p < 0.001) and were more likely to suffer from both diabetes (37.1% vs. 11.1%) and prediabetes (21.0% vs. 2.8%). Troponin level was significantly correlated with PWV in the whole study group (R=0.71; p<0.001) as well as in hypertensive individuals (R=0.63; p<0.001). In normotensive individuals, no significant correlation was found between troponin and PWV value (R=0.19; p=0.26). PWV significantly correlated with age in the entire study group (R=0.77; p<0.001), in people with hypertension (R=0.7; p<0.001), and in people without hypertension (R=0.42; p=0.01). Conclusions: Cardiac troponin serum levels determined without the clinical context of suspected acute illness have been shown to correlate with PWV in hypertensive significantly but not in normotensive individuals treated separately. Therefore, an interesting direction for further research is to determine whether cardiac troponin level determination could be used in routine clinical practice as a screening test to assess the status of the cardiovascular system in patients with arterial hypertension.