Value of serum cardiac troponin I in diagnosis and prognosis of viral myocarditis

Objective: To explore the value of serum cardiac troponin I (cTnI) raised in diagnostic and prognostic of viral myocarditis (VMC). Methods: Chemiluminescent immunometric assay and Immunosupressive assay were used to qualitatively detect cTnI and MB isoenzyme of creatine kinase (CK-MB). ELISA test was used to quantitatively detect the anti-body of virus. Results: The average of serum cTnI in 140 patients was (0.23±0.37) ng/ml. It was higher than that of control group (0.0 ng/ml), P 0.01. The level of cTnI in 89 of 140 patients had increased, positive rate (63.57%) was higher than that of CK-MB (27.14%), P 0.01. 68 patients were dynamic observed. At the point of a month, the rate of cTnI turning to be in normal range was 76.47%, 94.12% at 2 months and 100% at 6 months. The cTnI had increased in 12 critical patients (0.53±0.36) ng/ml, the time of cTnI turning negative lasted longer and exceeded 1 month in major patients. The cTnI positive rate in the patients with IgM antibody of Coxackie virus was 72.55% and greater than the patients with that of IgG(49.06%). Conclusions: Elevation of serum cTnI will provide objective basis for the presence of myocardial injury in VMC patients. cTnI is a highly sensitive and specific marker and it appears to last longer. The detection of cTnI has great importance to diagnosis and prognosis of VMC.