Elevated myocardial enzymes and NT-proBNP in anorexia nervosa may resemble cardiac cachexia and can improve with general treatment without cardiac-specific medication.
Cardiac biomarker elevations in anorexia nervosa may resolve without specific therapy; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change practice.
We report on a patient suffering from chronic anorexia nervosa who in the course of treatment showed elevated high-sensitive troponin T, creatine kinase and most markedly N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP). Elevated enzymes improved significantly throughout the course of treatment without cardiac specific medication but exceeded the normal range for weeks. Abnormally high myocardial enzymes and NT-proBNP in cachectic anorectic patients might resemble conditions of cardiac cachexia. A review of the available literature is provided. Further research is required to explain the pathophysiological meaning of the abnormal laboratory findings.
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Zastrow et al. (2011) studied this question.
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