troponin

[biology_06er]

Hey there

WHY is elevated levels of troponin good indicators of heart damage...ive tried online/textbook but the only thing it syas is that elevated levels of troponin are good indicators but not WHY?...does it have somehting to do with the fact that the more troponin present means that there is continuous stimulation of heart cells releaseing CA2+...or somehitng like that?

Cheers
biology_0er

[blcr11]

Didn't realize they were using troponin to monitor heart damage. The traditional monitors were enzymes like SGOT--to name one. When there is tissue damage due to heart attack or cirrhosis of the liver, these enzymes leak out of the dead or dying cells in the damaged regions of the organ. There are differences between heart and liver enzymes and you can exploit those differences to help determine if the increased serum levels are due to heart damage as opposed to liver damage. Troponin is a prominent consituent of muscle--but most (all?) muscle cells contain troponin. If you have elevated troponin levels, how do you know the troponin comes from a damaged heart? Maybe there are heart-specific troponins? I dunno. The basic idea has to be that the damaged heart muscle releases troponin as the cells necrose.

[bionewbie]

Troponin is a serum cardiac marker that is released into the blood in large quantities from the necrotic heart muscle after a heart attack.

It is a very good indicator because it remains elevated two weeks after the initial attack. Also, as a myocardial muscle protein, it has a very specific amino acid sequence than those of skeletal muscles which makes troponin very specific indicators for a heart attack.

Hope this helps.