Transient troponin elevations in the blood of healthy young children

Aims: Whilst cardiac troponin is considered to be indicative of cardiac necrosis, the advent of new high sensitivity assays for troponin suggests that troponin may be present in the blood of healthy persons. We have examined a cohort of healthy children and measured TnT in their blood. Methods and results: In this community-based prospective study, we collected blood samples from a large cohort of healthy children at ages 8, 10 and 12. years and measured hs-TnT on these samples.727 children had at least one blood sample collected and of these 28.6% had at least one sample in which troponin was detected. The number of samples with a positive troponin at each period of blood collection varied between 14.0% and 20.3%. Statistical analysis showed that the prevalence of positive TnT varied between schools and the between school pattern was different in different years. Conclusions: Low concentrations of troponin may be seen transiently in healthy children with no evidence of cardiac injury. This between-school by year variation is highly significant and is suggestive of a transient infective agent.