A new sensitive cardiac Troponin T rapid test (TROPT®) for the detection of experimental acute myocardial damage in rats

Cardiac Troponin T (cTnT) is a cardiac structural protein which is released in the circulation during myocardial cell damage. In this study we addressed the question of whether beta-sympathomimetic induced myocardial cell damage in rats can be detected in blood by the TROPT(R) sensitive rapid test strip which is primarily manufactured for the detection of acute myocardial infarction in humans. Sixteen male rats and 16 female animals were treated once with orciprenalinesulphate s.c. to induce tachycardia. The control group which consisted of 16 rats of both sexes received vehicle (physiological saline). The heart rate of two groups of 10 rats (5 of each sex) was measured after orciprenaline or saline treatment. After 1-2 hours we could demonstrate an increased heart rate in the orciprenaline group. Furthermore in this group we could show elevated cTnT levels in peripheral blood measured with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) Enzymun-Test(R) Troponin T for troponin T and a positive reaction of the TROPT(R) sensitive test strip. When compared with the ELISA method, the test strip showed a positive reaction at cTnT levels of 0.64 ng/ml upwards. After 24 hours and 96 hours half of the animals were sacrificed for histological examination of the heart tissue. After 24 hours all orciprenaline treated and examined animals showed myofibrillar degeneration of the myocardial cells. The second half of the animals sacrificed 96 hours after treatment with the sympathomimetic drug showed reparative fibrosis of the myocardium. All animals with myocardial damage due to orciprenaline showed a positive test strip result 2 hours after injection. Twenty-four hours after injection only 8 of the 16 animals had a positive test strip result although histological cell damage was demonstrated. All animals treated with physiological saline had negative results of the test strip and showed no signs of myocardial cell damage. We conclude that the TROPT(R) sensitive test strip is a rapid and reliable screening tool for detecting myocardial cell alteration in rats without the need of an expensive and time-consuming ELISA procedure if it is used in early phases of the experiment because all animals with myocardial damage were identified by the test 2 hours after induction of the damage. If the time range between the induction of the injury and the use of the test strip or the ELISA procedure is too wide, in our experiments 24 h, false negative results may occur.