abnormal levels of troponin

I recently had a heart event.  My troponin level was .27 and there was no evidence of coronary artery disease on the angiogram.  I was told I had a heart spasm.  How much above normal was my troponin level and where would the .27 level be in relation to a mild, moderate, and massive heart attack?

[ChatterAlly]

Hello there.  It is very interesting to me that your troponin was elevated but it was only considered to be heart spasms.  I have had a few heart attacks and stents, but this past April I went to the ER with the exact same type pain I had with the heart attacks and my troponin was not elevated.  I was diagnosed with vasospasms or coronary artery spasms.  Everyone was expecting to see elevated cardiac enzymes but did not.  The pain was extreme.  Fortunately, these have calmed down with meds.  I did some researching and found this post in here and thought you might like to read it.  Take care, Ally

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Heart-Disease/Troponin-Level-and-Heart-Tests/show/254598

[ed34]

I believe anything above .03 is considered further investigation. My troponin was .14 which was due to a completely blocked vessel, and I was in agony. If I think about this though, I would assume the more tissue affected, the higher the troponin. If the main left artery was in spasm, this would cause widespread oxygen deficit and troponin would be quite high, but the damage could still me minimal. So I don't think that a higher level necessarily would mean more damage, but simply more tissue being involved.
Have they put this down as a one off event? which can be the case with some people. I think it would be wise to have some nitro always on standby should it ever occur again. This could give quick recovery.

[jimmy670]

This sounds like something I had recently.  I went to the ER with chest pains and vomiting.  They noticed something strange on the ECG and took blood.  Initially my troponin was at 2.54, hours later it was 3.6 and went down to 1.5  10 hours later.  After that it was normal (less than 0.08).  Angiogram revealed no issues.  They released me from ICU 4 days after I was admitted and left them scratching their heads.

I am 38 years old, male, nonsmoker and never did drugs in my life.

[ed34]

It could have been a clot which cleared itself up over a short period of time.

[jimmy670]

Thanks ed34.  They are now thinking that it was Pericarditis (inflamation (inflammation) of the lining of the heart).  But they did not treat it and told me to go back to work and start exercising 4 days after I had it.  Not sure what to think anymore.  Still having the chest pains 3 weeks later.

[kenkeith]

There are several possibilities to explain your higher than normal troponin level (normal up to 0.03 ng/mL) and normal angiogram.  It can be due to tachycardia (fast heart rate), strenuous exercise, pericarditis (your doctor's conclusion).  There can be congested heart failure as well, and that was the conditioned raised my troponin I level to 2.7-3.9 ng/mL. Also, there can be no identifying cause as well.  Thanks for the question and take care.