High‐Sensitivity Troponin I Levels and Coronary Artery Disease Severity, Progression, and Long‐Term Outcomes

BackgroundThe associations between high‐sensitivity troponin I (hsTnI) levels and coronary artery disease (CAD) severity and progression remain unclear. We investigated whether there is an association between hsTnI and angiographic severity and progression of CAD and whether the predictive value of hsTnI level for incident cardiovascular outcomes is independent of CAD severity. Methods and ResultsIn 3087 patients (aged 63±12 years, 64% men) undergoing cardiac catheterization without evidence of acute myocardial infarction, the severity of CAD was calculated by the number of major coronary arteries with ≥50% stenosis and the Gensini score. CAD progression was assessed in a subset of 717 patients who had undergone ≥2 coronary angiograms >3 months before enrollment. Patients were followed up for incident all‐cause mortality and incident cardiovascular events. Of the total population, 11% had normal angiograms, 23% had nonobstructive CAD, 20% had 1‐vessel CAD, 20% had 2‐vessel CAD, and 26% had 3‐vessel CAD. After adjusting for age, sex, race, body mass index, smoking, hypertension, diabetes mellitus history, and renal function, hsTnI levels were independently associated with the severity of CAD measured by the Gensini score (log 2 ß=0.31; 95% confidence interval, 0.18–0.44; P