title: High sensitive troponin-I in patients with slow coronary flow pattern.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined the hypothesis that a specific myocardial injury marker, namely high sensitive cardiac troponin-I (HsTn-I), is elevated in patients with slow coronary flow (SCF) pattern.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine the above hypothesis by studying a group of patients who had undergone coronary angiography for the detection of their chest pain aetiology with SCF pattern despite an angiographically normal coronary arteriogram.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated and performed coronary angiography (CAG) of 97 patients with chest discomfort. The indication forCAG was at least Canada class 3 angina and/or proven myocardial ischaemia according to noninvasive diagnostic tests. We further divided patients into three subgroups according to CAG images and compared HsTn-I plasma levels in 39 patients with SCF pattern, 28 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), and 30 patients with normal coronary arteries. We researched the association between qualitative HsTn-I positivity and demographic features including cardiovascular risk factors, inflammation markers and TIMI frame count for each of the epicardial coronary arteries.
  
  
  RESULTS
  TIMI frame count for each epicardial coronary artery was significantly higher in patients with SCF pattern than in patients with CAD and normal coronary arteries (p < 0.001). HsTn-I positivity was not statistically different between patients with SCF pattern and normal coronary arteries (p = 512), but it was significantly higher in the CAD group than the other two group of patients (p < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In patients with SCF, HsTn-I may be detectable, but it is not elevated as in patients with normal coronary arteries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Mehmet Akif Ersoy Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey. drerturk@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Erturk
authors.forename: Fatma Nihan
authors.initials: FN
authors.lastname: Caglar
authors.forename: Ozgur
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Surgit
authors.forename: Ibrahim Faruk
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Akturk
authors.forename: Umut
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Somuncu
authors.forename: Ozgur
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Akgul
authors.forename: Asli
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kurtar
authors.forename: Nilgun
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Isiksacan
authors.forename: Ilker Murat
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Caglar
authors.forename: Nevzat
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Uslu
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019210:Troponin I / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D019210:Troponin I