Troponin I Levels in Asymptomatic Hemodialysis Patients

BACKGROUND: End-stage renal disease (ESRD) represents a situation in which persistently elevated levels of cardiac troponins I (cTnI) are frequently found in the absence of clinically evident cardiac disease. Moreover, the effect of hemodialysis (HD) on cTnI levels is not definitively elucidated. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of HD on cTnI levels in ESRD patients. METHODS: We enrolled 30 asymptomatic ESRD patients on maintenance HD. All the patients were dialyzed thrice weekly. We compared each other's cTnI levels obtained before HD sessions (pre-HD) and cTnI levels obtained before and after HD sessions (post-HD). RESULTS: The median value of baseline cTnI, measured before the first dialysis session of the week, was 0.018 ng/mL (interquartile range 0.012-0.051) and elevated levels (>0.034 ng/mL) were found in 9 (30%) patients. Pre-HD cTnI levels showed a statistically significant decrease between the first and the second weekly HD sessions (from 0.018 to 0.016 ng/mL; p = 0.002), while no difference was observed between the second and the third sessions over the week. Finally, no statistically significant differences were found between pre-HD and post-HD cTnI levels, considering each HD session and the averaged cTnI values. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that HD does not significantly affect cTnI levels. Even when statistically significant, the observed changes were without clinical relevance indicating that HD does not affect by itself the diagnostic accuracy of cTnI assay in ESRD patients.