OBJECTIVETo investigate the clinical value of monitoring the serum cardiac biomarkers in patients with pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) and secondary myocardial injury.

METHODSThe serum cardiac biomarkers including aspartate aminotransferase (AST), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), alpha-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (HBDH), creatine kinase (CK), creatine kinase isoenzyme (CK-MB), cardiac tropnin I (cTnI) and myoglobin (Myo) were measured using immunochemiluminescent assays in 36 patients with PTE, who were diagnosed according to imaging findings in the recent 5 years. The measurements in concomitant non-PTE patients free of heart, liver, or kidney diseases were used as the baseline values of the biomarkers. Correlation analysis of the measurements was conducted in relation to the pulmonary embolism area, pulmonary hypertension and mortality rate.

RESULTSThe PTE patients exhibited significantly elevated levels of the serum cardiac biomarkers including AST (56.14-/+15.73 U/L), LDH (303.06-/+94.99 U/L), HBDH (234.67-/+87.86 U/L), CK-MB (26.19-/+12.39 U/L), CK (129.25-/+76.14 U/L), Myo (70.63-/+45.75 ng/ml), and cTnI (0.45-/+0.41 ng/ml) in comparison with the baseline values (P < 0.01). Of these biomarkers, AST and CK-MB showed a significant correlation to the mortality, cTnI was correlated to pulmonary hypertension, and Myo was correlated to pulmonary hypertension and massive pulmonary embolism.

CONCLUSIONMeasurements of these serum cardiac biomarkers may serve as indicators for diagnosis of myocardial injury secondary to PTE. AST, CK-MB, cTnI, and Myo can help assess the prognosis of the patients.