Investigation of release and degradation of cardiac troponin T in patients with acute myocardial infarction.

Objectives: Cardiac troponin T (cTnT) degradation after tissue release is still under debate. Because degradation of cTnT might have consequences on clearance of the molecule from the circulation, but also on the assay performance, the aim of this study was to investigate cTnT release and degradation in serum of AMI patients.

Design And Methods: Serum samples were collected from 20 patients with AMI diagnosis undergoing rapid revascularization.

Interpretation of cardiac troponin T behaviour in size-exclusion chromatography.

Background: Knowledge about the presence of intact cardiac troponin T (cTnT) and/or its immunoreactive fragments is of great value for the interpretation of cTnT clearance from the circulation. Until now there has been a lot of controversy about cTnT fragmentation. To provide an answer to this controversy, we investigated fragmentation of cTnT with size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), and confirmed our data using mass spectrometry.