Troponin T in the first 24 hours after the administration of chemotherapy and the detection of myocardial damage in children

Early detection of damage to cardiac myocytes after cardiotoxic chemotherapy in paediatric patients may allow timely preventive measures to be taken. We investigated the diagnostic value of cardiac troponin T (cTnT) after the administration of cardiotoxic chemotherapy. In 38 children, cTnT levels were measured at three time points during the first 24 h after 58 cardiotoxic chemotherapy cycles (163 samples). An abnormal cTnT level, defined as a cTnT > 0.010 ng/ml, was measured in only six samples from 3 patients. After completion of chemotherapy, 7 out of the 38 patients had left ventricular dysfunction (LV dysfunction). Only 1 of these 7 patients had an elevated cTnT level. 2 other patients with elevated cTnT levels did not develop LV dysfunction until 2 and 7 months after the cTnT measurement. Our data show that the measurement of cTnT within 24 h after administration of chemotherapy does not have a high sensitivity for the identification of patients with subsequent subclinical cardiotoxicity. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.