Accelerated Vascular Aging as a Possible Mechanism of Troponin I Release in the Absence of Clinically Manifested Myocardial Injury.

Background: We examined the association between clusters of vascular aging manifestations and ultrasensitivity cardiac troponin I in individuals without cardiovascular disease.

Methods and results: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using baseline data from PPS-3 (Paris Prospective Study III), a French cohort of 10 157 participants. Cardiac troponin I was measured with an ultrasensitive immunoassay with a limit of detection of 0.013 pg/mL. Vascular aging manifestations were assessed via echotracking of the right common carotid artery to measure structural and functional parameters. Hierarchical clustering was used to identify clusters of vascular aging. Multinomial regression assessed the association between vascular aging clusters and cardiac troponin I quintiles. The study included 8722 cardiovascular disease-free participants (mean±SD age, 59.5±6.3 years; 39% women). Three vascular aging clusters were identified. Cluster 1 (n=4158; 47.4%) was characterized as healthy vascular aging with the lowest arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis indices; cluster 2 (n=2237; 25.5%) was characterized by the highest arteriosclerosis indices, including increased pulse wave velocity, β index, and Young elastic modulus and lowest distensibility coefficient; and cluster 3 (n=2377; 27.0%) was characterized by the highest atherosclerosis indices, including more frequent plaque prevalence and greater intima-media thickness. Compared with healthy vascular aging, arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis clusters showed a graded positive association with cardiac troponin I quintiles, independent of traditional risk factors. The adjusted odds ratio for belonging to the highest quintile (quintile 5 versus quintile 1) was 1.55 (95% CI, 1.31-1.92) for arteriosclerosis and 2.66 (95% CI, 2.18-3.23) for atherosclerosis clusters.

Conclusions: Vascular aging manifestations of arteriosclerosis and atherosclerosis may partly explain the release of troponin I into the bloodstream in adults without clinical cardiovascular disease.

Registration: URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT00741728.