High-sensitivity cardiac troponin decrease after percutaneous coronary intervention in patients with stable coronary artery disease

Baseline cardiac troponin is a strong predictor of major adverse cardiac events (MACE), and the high sensitive assay can provide risk stratification under the 99th percentile values. Currently, prognostic benefit of PCI has not been established in patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD), and the influence on baseline troponin levels is unknown. This study aimed to investigate the impact of PCI on baseline high-sensitivity cardiac troponin-I (hs-cTnI) levels and the association with MACE incidence. For 401 patients with stable CAD who were indicated for PCI, baseline hs-cTnI levels were measured before PCI for two times (the average: pre-PCI hs-cTnI) and 10 months after PCI (post-PCI remote hs-cTnI). Hs-cTnI day-to-day variability was assessed based on the pre-PCI values and patients were divided into three groups (Increase/No change/Decrease group) according to the extent of hs-cTnI change (post-PCI remote hs-cTnI minus pre-PCI hs-cTnI) considering the day-to-day variability. A total of 77 patients were categorized into Decrease group. Although Decrease group had significantly higher pre-PCI hs-cTnI levels compared to the other groups, this group had lowest incidence of MACE ( p