title: Usefulness of cardiac troponin T and echocardiography in the diagnosis of hypoxic myocardial injury of full-term neonates.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Perinatal asphyxia constitutes a significant problem influencing neonatal mortality and morbidity.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the present work was to provide evidence of the usefulness of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and echocardiographic investigations in the diagnosis of heart damage in full-term infants after intrauterine hypoxia.
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects were 39 asphyxiated and 44 term infants without fetal anoxia. Quantitative determinations of cTnT were performed between 12 and 24 h of life. Two-dimensional Doppler and color Doppler studies were performed at the bedside. We evaluated fractional shortening (FS), cardiac output (CO), cardiac index (CI), tricuspid (TI) and mitral (MI) insufficiency.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Asphyxiated infants presented increased cTnT (mean 0.141+/-0.226 vs. 0.087+/-0.111 ng/ml; p<0.01) and TI (38.5 vs. 11.4% of population; p<0.05) compared to healthy infants. CO, CI and FS remained in the same range.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We found cTnT to be the most useful among accessible diagnostic tools used in post-hypoxic heart damage in neonates. The data from our relatively small population study suggest a cTnT value of >0.1 ng/ml as a reliable marker of myocardial injury in neonates. Further study should be performed to generate a receiver-operator characteristic curve to discover what the cut-off level should be.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, Poland. mszymank@gpsk.am.poznan.pl
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Szymankiewicz
authors.forename: Marzena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Matuszczak-Wleklak
authors.forename: Joan E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hodgman
authors.forename: Janusz
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gadzinowski
mesh_terms: D001238:Asphyxia Neonatorum / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002302:Cardiac Output / Q000502:physiology; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology; D020107:Troponin T / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D020107:Troponin T