title: Assessment of the diagnostic accuracy of circulating cardiac troponin I concentration to distinguish between cats with cardiac and non-cardiac causes of respiratory distress.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if serum cardiac troponin I (cTnI) concentrations can distinguish cardiac from non-cardiac causes of respiratory distress (RD) in cats.
  
  
  METHODS
  53 cats. cTnI concentrations were measured in 30 cats with non-cardiac respiratory distress (RD-NC) and compared to 23 cats with RD due to congestive heart failure (RD+CHF).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The RD+CHF group had higher median cTnI concentration (0.94 ng/ml interquartile range IQR 0.54-4.00, range < 0.20-90.14) than the RD-NC group (< 0.2 ng/ml IQR < 0.2-0.33, range < 0.20-41.1, p<0.001). The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.842 (95% CI 0.728-0.955) for the receiver operator curve (ROC) analysis of the accuracy of cTnI concentrations to discriminate RD+CHF from RD-NC cats. A cut-off of > or = 0.81 ng/ml discriminated RD+CHF from RD-NC cats with a sensitivity and specificity of 65.2% and 90.0% respectively. However considerable overlap in cTnI concentrations between the 2 groups was identified.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Serum cTnI concentrations were different in RD+CHF compared to RD-NC cats. However the overlap in cTnI concentrations between the 2 groups reduced the clinical efficacy of the assay which therefore should not be used as a stand-alone test but in combination with other diagnostics such as echocardiography and radiography.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, The Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, North Mymms, Hatfield, Herts AL9 7TA UK. dconnolly@rvc.ac.uk
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Connolly
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Brodbelt
authors.forename: Hannah
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Copeland
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: Virginia Luis
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Fuentes
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000662:veterinary*; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002415:Cats; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000662:veterinary; D008297:Male; D012372:ROC Curve; D019210:Troponin I / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D019210:Troponin I