Anti-cardiac troponin antibodies in clinical human disease: a systematic review

Anti-cardiac troponin antibodies have been studied in different types of clinical diseases and in healthy populations. A systematic review of published data on anti-troponin antibodies was carried out (search performed on PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge and Scopus databases). From title and abstract analysis, thirty-three articles were included that met the pre-specified criteria; after full-text analysis, nine articles were excluded. Most studies assessed anti-troponin I antibodies. The prevalence of anti-cardiac troponin antibodies in healthy individuals ranged from 0.0% to 20.0%. The prevalence of anti-troponin I autoantibodies in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) ranged from 7.0% to 22.2%. Other conditions under study were myocardial infarction, ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM), peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM), Chagas disease, Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy (EDMD) and renal transplantation. In the different patient populations studied, anti-cardiac troponin antibodies have been shown to be either positively or negatively associated with prognostic and clinical features. In what concerns a possible value as biomarkers, these assays have not emerged up to the present moment as important aids for practical clinical decisions in cardiac or other types of patients. In what concerns pathophysiology, anti-cardiac troponin autoantibodies may play a role in different diseases. It can be speculated that these antibodies could be involved in perpetuating some degree of cardiac injury after an event, such as myocardial infarction or PPCM.