Background:
Metabolic syndrome (MS) is associated with higher CVD risk. High sensitivity troponin T (hsTnT) is a marker of myocardial injury and an emerging marker for heart failure (HF) risk prediction. We examined whether hsTnT is associated with increased HF risk in people with similar number of MS components present at baseline in 10316 ARIC participants without prevalent HF.
Methods:
We used Wald Chi-square test to assess the interaction between MS and hsTnT and Cox model for the association of incident HF hospitalization by hsTnT categories across groups created by the number of MS components after adjusting for risk factors and NT-proBNP (Table).
Results:
The mean age of the study population was 63 (SD, 6) years (56% women). Mean hsTnT levels were higher with increasing MS components (Table). There were 1353 HF hospitalizations over a median of 14 years. The interaction of MS with hsTnT for HF was borderline significant (p-interaction 0.059). Compared to individuals without MS and hsTnT<5 ng/L the HRs (95%CIs) were 1.7 (1.4-2.1) in those without MS and hsTnT≥5 ng/L; 1.7 (1.3-2.1) in MS and hsTnT<5 ng/L; and 3.6 (3.0-4.4) in MS and hsTnT≥5 ng/L. In groups with 1-5 MS components present, increasing hsTnT was significantly associated with higher hazards for HF in each group with the highest HR in those with all 5 MS components (Table).
Conclusion:
Presence of higher MS risk components was associated with increasing subclinical myocardial injury as assessed by higher hsTnT. The hazards for HF were numerically similar in individuals without MS but detectable hsTnT (>5 ng/L) as to those with MS but undetectable hsTnT. In people with similar number of MS components higher hsTnT levels were associated with increased HF hazards suggesting that in MS hsTnT could be a useful marker for identifying those at higher risk for incident HF.
High-Sensitivity Troponin T and Incident Heart Failure in Older Men: British Regional Heart Study
