Troponin T in the coronary sinus and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty related myocardial injury

1. Myocardial injury has been shown to be associated with successful percut aneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). The present study was desi gned to determine whether uncomplicated successful PTCA results in myocardi al injury by measuring coronary sinus (CS) cardiac troponin T (cTnT). 2. We measured cTnT in the CS and the femoral vein (FV) in 16 patients with stable angina pectoris who underwent uncomplicated PTCA for stenotic lesio ns of the left anterior descending artery. Blood samples were drawn from bo th the CS and FV before and immediately after PTCA and every 4 h for the ne xt 12 h. 3. All patients had chest pain and electrocardiographic ST segment elevatio n or depression during balloon inflation and higher peak elevation of cTnT in the CS than in the FV (0.054 +/- 0.059 vs 0.036 +/- 0.022 ng/mL; P < 0.0 5). However, all CS cTnT levels were within the normal range over the 12 h period. 4. The fact that CS cTnT measurements showed no evidence of uncomplicated P TCA-related myocardial injury led us to conclude that uncomplicated success ful PTCA does not cause myocardial injury.