Sensitivity and Specificity of Cardiac Troponin I and duration of Cardiopulmonary Bypasses in Predicting Arrhythmia

Aim: The sensitivity and specificity of cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and cardiopulmonary bypasses (CPB) in predicting arrhythmia remain unclear. This study aimed to investigate the association of CPB duration and cTnI with the type of arrhythmias.

Study Design: It is a retrospective observational study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study took place in New Children Hospital in Cairo, Egypt between May 2018-December, 2019.

Methods: The study included a total of thirty-three patients who underwent open-heart surgery. Patients between the age of 2 months and 12 years of both gender with the diagnosis of tetralogy of Fallot, ventricular septal defect, and atrioventricular defect were included in the study. Patients with preoperative high-level of cTnI and a history of major intraoperative events were excluded from the study. The accuracy was calculated using sensitivity and specificity. The area under the ROC curve (95% CI) and p-value were calculated.

Results: Out of thirty-three patients undergoing open-heart surgery, 58.1% were male and were 12 months or more (71%). A statistically significant correlation between arrhythmia, cTnI, and CPB was observed (p < 0.05). cTnI predicted high-level sensitivity for arrhythmias, hospital stay, and ICU stay, while low specificity was reported for cTnI as compared to CPB.

Conclusion: The higher level of cTnI was correlated with the underlying burden of arrhythmias. A novel high-sensitivity cTnI assay can protectively recognize patients at low risk of arrhythmias.