Diagnosis of Perioperative Myocardial Infarction with Measurement of Cardiac Troponin I

Myocardial infarction is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients who have had noncardiac surgery 1 . The mortality among patients with perioperative infarction ranges from 36 to 70 percent 2 , 3 . However, it can be difficult to detect perioperative cardiac injury, since most episodes of myocardial ischemia occur without changes in the heart rate or blood pressure 4 , 5 . Although the measurement of MB creatine kinase has been the marker of choice for the detection of myocardial injury in most situations, increases above the normal range can sometimes occur after surgery in the absence of apparent cardiac . . .