Maternal cardiac troponin levels in pre-eclampsia: a systematic review

Abstract

Objective: We systematically review the literature for potential alterations in cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in patients who suffer from pre-eclampsia.

Methods: We used the Medline (1966–2015), Scopus (2004–2015), Popline (1974–2015), ClinicalTrials.gov (2008–2015) and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (1999–2015) databases for our primary search; we also employed the reference lists of the full-text articles that we retrieved electronically.

Results: We included nine studies involving 719 women. Five of these studies suggested that cTnI increases in pre-eclamptic patients above the normal threshold. However, all studies reported outcomes at a single time point, and they failed to perform consecutive measurements to observe whether this effect was long lasting and whether it evolved during the course of pregnancy.

Conclusions: Current evidence suggests that cTnI might be elevated in pre-eclamptic pregnant women, although this observation is not always reported. Future studies are necessary to consistently observe cTnI levels throughout the prenatal period and during the first few postnatal weeks. A concurrent evaluation of other cardiovascular hemodynamic parameters could be of use in mechanistic models for predicting future cardiovascular morbidity in these women.

• Abnormal placentation
• gestational hypertension
• heart failure
• pre-eclampsia
• troponin

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.