Cardiac Troponin T Level in Pediatric Patients with Respiratory Distress

Abstract

R espiratory distress is one of the most common reasons for pediatric emergency department visits and hospitalizations. Respiratory distress, due to any cause, stresses the heart by increasing myocardial oxygen demand, this imbalance in myocardial oxygen supply and demand may cause of elevated cardiac Troponin T. Cardiac troponin T (cTnT) is a subunit of a thin filament of the contractile apparatus of the myocardium. It is a cardiospecific and highly sensitive marker for myocardial damage in children. This case control study was conducted on 50 children (62% males, 38% females) with respiratory distress (52% of them had pneumonia), from the pediatric emergency room and inpatient wards of the children’s hospital, Ain Shams University Hospitals. They were compared to 50 age and sex matched children as control for Troponin T values. The aim of the current study was to study cardiac complications and injury with respiratory distress and correlate it with the severity of the respiratory distress through screening for cardiac affection by measuring Troponin T level by ELISA. All patients were subjected to detailed history, thorough clinical examination, chest x-ray, laboratory investigations