Cardiac biomarker levels strongly predict outcome of bypass surgery
Friday, September 4, 2009 - 14:49
in Health & Medicine
Levels of a biomarker used in the diagnosis of heart attacks are almost universally elevated in patients who have undergone coronary-artery bypass grafting (CABG) and, when markedly elevated, are powerfully prognostic, a team of researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Heart Center has found. Their report implies that, while measurement of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) can help determine patient prognosis, current consensus recommendations regarding the use of cTNT to diagnosis post-CABG heart attack (myocardial infarction) probably should be reconsidered. The paper appears in the September 8 issue of Circulation and has been released online,