SCIENTIFIC LETTER Measurements of cardiac troponin T in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

The serum concentration of cardiac troponin T (TnT) is aspecific and highly sensitive marker of myocardial injury,and its diagnostic and prognostic values have been well established and widely reported in acute coronary syndromes.1 We have recently found that patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy with particularly poor prognosis have increased serum concentrations of TnT in absence of significant coronary stenoses.2 3 It is noteworthy that most patients with poor outcomes had persistently high TnT, including during periods of heart failure stabilised by conventional treatment, when they were free of dyspnoea, and of radiographic and auscultatory signs of pulmonary conges-tion. Therefore, an increase in serum TnT concentrations seems to be a reliable indicator of subclinical ongoing myocyte injury. METHODS To examine the relation between TnT concentrations (secon