Troponin I Assessment of Cardiac Involvement in Patients With Connective Tissue Disease and an Elevated Creatine Kinase MB Isoform Report of Four Cases and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Levels of creatine kinase MB isoform (CKMB) can be elevated in patients with myopathy, neuropathy, skeletal muscle injury, or renal failure in the absence of myocardial injury. These elevated CKMB levels make it difficult to identify cardiac involvement in conditions that can be associated with a variety of cardiac abnormalities or with symptoms that mimic them. Cardiac troponin I (cTnI), a myocardial regulatory protein, has a high specificity for cardiac muscle and can be used to clarify the etiology of CKMB elevations in such patients. In this report, four patients with diverse causes for increased CKMB levels are discussed with respect to cill.The first three patients, with tentative diagnoses of mixed connective tissue disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and polymyositis presented with increasing shortness of breath, tachycardia, nonspecific electrocardiogram changes, high creative kinase, and CKMB levels. A normal cTnI helped exclude a diagnosis of a cardiac cause of their symptoms. Patient 4 had a scleroderma variant and experienced sudden, fatal, cardiac decompensation caused by a dilated cardiomyopathy, accompanied by an increased cTnl.The cTnI is a reliable, specific, and quick wav of excluding or determining cardiac involvement in patients with connective tissue disease. As this test is inexpensive and becoming increasingly available, it could become the test of choice, especially in scenarios in which urgent management decisions are needed.