Abstract 3420: High-sensitivity Troponin T Improves Cardiovascular Risk Prediction In Patients With Cerebral Ischemia

Background Patients with a cerebral ischemic event are at high risk of recurrent ischemia and other cardiovascular events. Clinical scores are recommended to predict cardiovascular risk in patients with cerebral ischemia to inform secondary preventive measures. Biomarkers may improve risk prediction beyond clinical scores and therefore secondary prevention. Methods Within the observational Find-AF trial (ISRCTN 46104198), 197 patients aged >18 years with cerebral ischemia and without atrial fibrillation had blood sampled at baseline and completed 1-year follow-up. Predictive value of 5 novel cardiovascular biomarkers for a combined vascular endpoint (acute coronary syndrome, stroke, cardiovascular death) and all-cause mortality was determined, alone and in addition to Essen Stroke Risk Score (ESRS), Stroke Prognostic Instrument 2 (SPI-2), National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIH-SS) and Modified Rankin Scale (MRS). Results There were 23 vascular events (11.7%) and 13 deaths (6.6%) during 1 year. In multivariate analyses of all 5 markers, only high-sensitivity Troponin T (hs-TropT) remained significantly predictive of vascular events (p=0.045) and all-cause mortality (p=0.004). Hs-TropT was higher in patients with a vascular event (median 12.7 [6.8; 49.6] ng/mL vs. 5.1 [1.5; 11.7] ng/mL) and patients with hs-TropT above the median of 6.15 ng/mL were more likely to have a vascular event (Hazard Ratio 4.0, p=0.006 on log-rank test). For prediction of vascular events as well as all-cause mortality, hs-TropT significantly contributed to multivariate Cox-regression models with ESRS, SPI-2, or each combined with NIH-SS or MRS as covariates. C-statistic increased numerically from 0.689 (ESRS) to 0.743 (ESRS+hs-TropT) and 0.696 (SPI-2) to 0.758 (SPI-2+hs-TropT) (p=n.s.). Areas under the receiver-operator characteristics curves for vascular events were 0.694 (SPI-2), 0.712 (ESRS), 0.743 (ESRS+hs-TropT), 0.755 (hs-TropT) and 0.760 (SPI-2+hs-TropT). No patient with a low-risk ESRS ≤2 and a hs-TropT below the median had a vascular event during 1 year follow-up. Conclusion Hs-TropT is predictive of major vascular events and all-cause mortality in patients with cerebral ischemia and improves prediction by established clinical scores.