Hypertroponinemia, Structural Cardiac Disease, and Stroke Mortality

See related article, p 1226. High cardiac troponin T (cTn) levels reflect myocardial damage in heart failure patients and predict poor prognosis in various cardiomyopathies and stroke. Cerebrovascular and cardiovascular diseases are major causes of death and disability worldwide. Ischemic stroke is a frequent complication in cardiac diseases, and cardiac complications commonly cause early clinical worsening and death after stroke. Acute myocardial infarction is a common complication of acute ischemic stroke (AIS); ≈4% of AIS patients will die from myocardial infarction in the 3 months after stroke, and 19% will suffer a cardiac event.1,2 AIS is an established cause of nonacute myocardial infarction hypertroponinemia, previously reported as 20% to 60%.3–5Can these risk factors, such as cTn elevation and cardiac changes, influence mortality after stroke?To this regard, Wrigley et al6 analyzed data of biracial population of 1.3 million is largely representative of the United States in terms of median age, proportion of black subjects, and economic status. The analysis was done in adult patients (aged 20 …