Abstract: Objective To study the level of cardiac troponin T(cTnT) and its possible influence factors in maintenance hemodialysis(MHD) patients. Methods Blood was obtained from 123 MHD patients before undergoing hemodialysis, cTnT was measured by electro- chemoluminiscence immunoassay. Spearman correlation and linear regression were used to assess the relationship between cTnT and other parameters. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to assess the correlation with cTnT,amino-terminal pro-brain-natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), high-sensitive C reactive protein(hsCRP) and cardiovascular disease(CVD ) as well as left ventricular hypertrophy(LVH). Results The median value of serum cTnT was 0.046（0.028-0.066）ng/ml in 123 MHD patients, patients with cardiovascular disease(CVD) had higher cTnT levels than those without CVD(0.062[0.044-0.083]ng/ml vs 0.031[0.020-0.046]ng/ml, P=0.002), patients with diabetes mellitus(DM) had higher cTnT levels than those non-DM (0.061[0.042-0.102]ng/ml vs 0.044[0.025-0.064]ng/ml, P=0.003). In all MHD patients cTnT correlated positively with age(ρ=0.309, P=0.001), glycated albumin (ρ=0.192, P=0.040), NT-proBNP (ρ=0.448, P<0.001), hsCRP(ρ=0.335, P<0.001), carotid artery intima-media thickness (ρ=0.315, P=0.004) and left ventricular mass index(LVMI)(ρ=0.369, P<0.001); negatively with pre-albumin(ρ=-0.280, P=0.002), high density lipoprotein cholesterol(ρ=-0.201, P=0.047). Linear regression analysis showed age (β=0.204, P=0.043), NT-proBNP (β=0.299, P=0.010) and LVMI (β=0.345, P=0.003) were independently associated cTnT. ROC curves analysis showed the correlation between cTnT and CVD was more closely than NT-proBNP and hsCRP, the correlation between cTnT and LVH was lower than NT-proBNP,and higher than hsCRP. Conclusions Serum cTnT is markedly elevated in MHD patients; Serum cTnT is associated with advanced age, fluid overload, malnutrition, microinflammation, LVH and CVD in MHD patients.

Key words: hemodialysis, cardiac troponin T, cardiovascular disease, left ventricular hypertrophy