Determination of cardiac troponin T and MB creatine kinase mass in diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction

We investigated dynamics of cardiac troponin T (TnT), creatine kinase (CK-MB) mass and CK-MB activity in sera from 24 patients with acute myocardial infarction hospitalized within 4 hours after onset of pain. CK-MB mass was higher than normal level in more than 80% and in all patients in 4 and 8 hours after onset of symptoms, respectively. CK-MB activity exceeded normal level in 4 hours in 35% of patients and in all patients only after 12 hours. Cardiac TnT level began to increase after 2 - 4 hours and in 8 hours it became higher than normal level in 100% of patients. On days 7 and 14 of infarction in 50 and 44% of patients, respectively, TnT still exceeded normal level. in patients subjected to thrombolytic therapy kinetics of CK-MB mass and level of TnT depended on its results. When reperfusion was achieved, maximal CK-MB mass and peak TnT level were reached by 13-th and 16-th hours, respectively. When occlusion persisted peak values of both markers were registered later.