Troponin-I Level After Major Noncardiac Surgery and Its Association With Long-Term Mortality

Individuals with intermediate to high cardiac risk for major noncardiac surgery suffer from perioperative myocardial ischemic injury. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term impact of postoperative cardiac troponin elevation on clinical outcome after major noncardiac surgery.Patients (n = 750) aged ≥ 50 years who underwent major noncardiac surgery were eligible for the study. Postoperative cardiac troponin-I data were collected retrospectively and consecutively. The primary outcome measure was allcause mortality. The median follow-up period was 1727 days in all patients.Among 750 patients, 92 (12.2%) showed elevated postoperative troponin-I above 0.10 ng/mL. Operative mortality was 4.1% (31 subjects), and patients with troponin-I elevation showed a higher operative mortality rate (RR: 4.23, 95% CI: 2.67-11.31, P < 0.001). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, a troponin-I concentration above 0.10 ng/mL was associated with all-cause mortality (RR: 1.73, 95% CI: 1.27-2.36, P < 0.001). It should be noted that there was a significant difference between patients with elevated and non-elevated troponin-I in the rate of mortality until 6 months. However, these differences disappeared after 6 months.An elevated troponin-I level conferred an increase in mortality during the 7 year follow-up period after major noncardiac surgery. This difference in mortality was mainly derived from the result within the first 6 months.