Comparison of troponin and natriuretic peptides in takotsubo syndrome and acute coronary syndrome: a meta-analysis

Background Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is an acute heart failure syndrome which resembles acute coronary syndrome (ACS) at presentation. Differentiation requires coronary angiography, but where this does not occur immediately, cardiac biomarkers may provide additional utility. We performed a meta-analysis to compare troponin and natriuretic peptides (NPs) in TTS and ACS to determine if differences in biomarker profile can aid diagnosis. Methods We searched five literature databases for studies reporting NPs (BNP/NT-pro-BNP) or troponin I/T in TTS and ACS, identifying 28 studies for troponin/NPs (5618 and 1145 patients respectively). Results Troponin was significantly lower in TTS than ACS (standardized mean difference (SMD) −0.86; 95% CI −1.08-−0.64; p<0.00001), with an absolute difference of 75 times the upper limit of normal (xULN) higher in ACS than TTS. Conversely, NPs were significantly higher in TTS (SMD 0.62; 0.44-0.80; p<0.00001) and 5.8xULN greater absolutely. Area under the curve (AUC) for troponin in ACS versus TTS was 0.82 (0.70-0.93), and 0.92 (0.80-1.00) for STEMI vs. TTS. For NPs, AUC was 0.69 (0.48-0.89). Combination of troponin and NPs with logistic regression did not improve AUC. Recursive partitioning and regression tree analysis calculated a troponin threshold ≥26xULN that identified 95% cases as ACS where and specificity for ACS were 85.71% and 53.57% respectively, with 94.32% positive predictive value and 29.40% negative predictive value. Conclusions Troponin is lower and NPs higher in TTS versus ACS. Troponin had greater power than NPs at discriminating TTS and ACS, and with troponin ≥26xULN patients are far more likely to have ACS.