A comparative study of myocardial troponin T levels in patients undergoing hemodialysis

This study included 25 patients receiving hemodialysis (HD) but in whom diabetes mellitus was not the primary disease (HD-non DM group), 25 patients receiving hemodialysis with diabetes mellitus as the primary disease (HD-DM group), and 50 patients with diabetes mellitus who had not yet been treated with hemodialysis (DM group). The following markers of myocardial injury were measured in these patients: troponin T (TnT), creatine kinase (CK), myoglobin (Mb), and myosin light chain-1 (MLC-1). No significant correlation was found between myocardial TnT and Cr in any study group. The Mb and MLC-1 values in patients receiving HD were markedly higher than normal regardless of the primary disease involvement, while myocardial TnT was found to be only slightly abnormal. These results suggest that myocardial TnT may be a more useful marker of myocardial injury in HD patients than the markers in current use. In the present investigation, myocardial TnT was the only marker that was higher in the HD-DM group than in the HD-non DM group. This suggests the possibility that the HD-DM group included more patients with arteriosclerotic lesions, such as myocardial injury.