Impact of Periprocedural Myocardial Biomarker Elevation on Mortality Following Elective Percutaneous Coronary Intervention.

OBJECTIVES This study sought to explore the association between biomarker elevation, with creatine kinase-myocardial band (CK-MB) or cardiac troponin (cTn), following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and mortality in patients undergoing PCI for stable angina with normal baseline values. BACKGROUND Several studies have shown a strong association between post-PCI CK-MB elevation and subsequent mortality. However, the prognostic significance of troponin elevation following coronary intervention is still debated. METHODS Patient-level data from 5 contemporary coronary stent trials and 1 large registry were pooled. Mortality of patients with stable angina, with normal baseline biomarkers, was compared between patients with and those without different cutoff values of cTn and CK-MB. RESULTS A total of 13,452 patients were included in this pooled analysis. The overall percentage of patients with elevated biomarkers following PCI was 23.9% for CK-MB and 68.4% for cTn. In the patient cohort for whom both assays were available (n = 8,859), 2.4% had both CK-MB ≥5 × the upper limit of normal (ULN) and cTn ≥35 × ULN, while 92% had both CK-MB <5 × ULN and cTn