Cardiac Troponin T (cTn T) and the Postmortem Diagnosis of Sudden Death

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of the increase of postmortem cardiac troponin T (cTn T) in acute disease-related deaths. METHODS: Peripheral venous blood was sampled from 39 autopsies performed. Thirty nonhemolyzed specimens were considered in the final analysis (n = 30).Only the calculation of the cTn T was performed using the Roche Diagnostics Elecsys 2010 Immunoassay System. The high limit and the cutoff are 25 ng/mL. Deaths were divided into 2 groups, according to sudden cardiac deaths (group 1, n = 15) and non-cardiac-related deaths without resuscitation (group 2, n = 15). RESULTS: All the cases with visual myocardial infarction had elevated concentrations of cTn T. The difference of the postmortem cTn T concentrations between resuscitated and nonresuscitated is nonsignificant. In the non-cardiac-related deaths, the elevated concentrations of cTn T were only noted in all cases of electrocution. CONCLUSION: In clinical practice, several biochemical markers are used for the diagnosis of myocardial infarction. Because of its extreme specificity for myocardial damage, cTn T and cardiac troponin I (cTn I) are frequently used. The results of these assays could then be used to facilitate selection for cases that may be released following histologic examinations.